OK so want to make a bag for SIL birthday but have never made anything before help!

[LoveBeingAMardyBum]

So I have seen a couple of patterns on here and have decided that I will make a bag for my SIL's birthday at the beginning of next month. But have some questions.

What is a fat quarter? Do you need a particular type of material for bags? Where is the best place to buy everything I need? For example if I go down to John Lewis is it going to work out more expensive than say ebay or a specialist site? Am I kidding myself that I can make something that is good enough to give as a gift when I've never made anything before?

tia

I've only been sewing for a couple of months and have made a few bags which I've given as gifts, they came out much better than I thought they would. I've made a few easy drawstring bags for kids and a couple of buttercup bags (there is a free pattern on the made by rae website) which were surprisingly easy and look pretty good. There is a website called DIY bag lover (I think) which has lots of links on.

A fat quarter is the same amount of fabric as if you ordered a quarter metre but it comes in a square rather than a long strip if that makes sense? I have just used cotton or polycotton from my local market and for one I used some curtain fabric remnants from a local shop. I put interfacing in some of them (like a lining that makes it heavier). Its very addictive - I have a whole stash of odds and ends of fabric already!

Bags are harder than they look...you don't need partilar fabric...a cotton shopper/book bag would be easiest....a nice prnt cotton will do a great job. What about a pillow? Much easier tha a bag...with bags it is very easy to get the handles and fastenings wrong...plus there's the gussets...difficult!

It was the link to the buttercup one that gave me the idea as someone had said was easier than they had thought.

valentin I'm not sure that a pillow would be her taste tbh.

I am very proud of my buttercup bag, i used it all summer.

I enlarged my pattern from A4 to A3 on the photocopier.

I know my friends found the pleats difficult to sew as the bag is then curved, not flat, but I dint have that problem. I think it might depend on the fabric you are using. I used a thin cotton so ironed on medium heavy interfacing (vilene) on to the lining, which worked well, didnt put it on the outer fabric as I still wanted a bit of a drape and soft look. I thought the bag might look too stiff otherwise. Dont know if I explained that well.

Just use some old bedding or clothes to practice on, before using decent fabric. Find a little independent fabric shop or market as the departments stores charge around £10 a metre!

they have some good tutorials on the purl bee and i've just listed some nice online fabric shops on another thread. Purl bee has some lovely things on there though.

oh and a fat quarter is the fabric cut into square quarters not 4 long bits. although i believe anything above an fq is as you would buy it from anywhere else (ie just a standard 1/2 m or full m). hope that makes sense?

Thanks everyone, defo feel a bit more like i can tackle it although whether it will be good enough to gift or not is another question (will be doing a practice one)