The Soft & Stable Verdict on Our DittyRoo

It's no secret that I LOVE Soft & Stable, the revolutionary foundation material which we featured in our new pattern, the Baggalista. But almost as soon as we released the new pattern, we started getting LOTS of questions about the possibility of using Soft & Stable in our 24 earlier patterns.

Here's the box from Noreen! Oh BOY!

So last month we issued a call for someone who might be interested in working directly with us to test this material in our DittyRoo pattern, and we were thrilled when Noreen Saukko, of Tower, MN volunteered.

Noreen agreed to make up her DittyRoo, substituting Soft & Stable for fusible fleece in the body of her DittyRoo as we directed. We asked her to send us the completed bag so we could conduct a performance comparison when she was finished, and we were so excited last week, when it arrived!

YIKES!

I was a little concerned when I opened the box and saw how crumpled this DittyRoo looked.

Would it bounce back and regain it's shape?

Let's hope so!

But after a little fluffing and pressing, Noreen's DittyRoo looks pretty darned good hung up next to one of our samples in which we used fusible fleece.

As a matter of fact, there is no perceptible difference in the look of these two bags.

So far so good!

Soft & Stable DID seem to aid in supporting the DittyRoo's shape.

Once we placed the two bags onto a table so that they were no longer supported in any way, it DOES appear that the Soft & Stable helps to maintain the shape and contour of the DittyRoo.


Interesting.....but now we need to hear from Noreen. What was it like putting the DittyRoo together using Soft & Stable. Were there any problem areas?

We did make a few modifications in the pattern templates in anticipation of the extra bulk potential in the seams, but were our changes adequate?

Considering how thick the layers were at this point,
it's no wonder Noreen had difficulty keeping a straight topstitching line!

Here's what Noreen said...




"The bag went together quite well until I got to the tp edge. Topstitching was especially difficult. I had to switch to my older Viking machine to topstitch this DittyRoo because it handles thick layers better. Even then, I could only get through the really thick spots with a 100 needle, because even a 90 broke."
 Noreen seemed especially troubled by the uneven topstitching in her bag. (I think she did a pretty darned good job, considering!)

Noreen went on to say that she "didn't think it made much difference in the look of the final bag. The fleece seemed to shape it just as well, and since the bag is meant to have a soft look to it, she concluded that the Soft & Stable wasn't worth the extra effort (and trouble)."

So what can we conclude from this exercise? Will we continue to use Soft & Stable as a foundation material in our future designs?

You Betcha!
Because I'm still sold on it as a resource for the future, BUT- 

We will NOT be recommending Soft & Stable 

as a routine substitute for fusible fleece in our DittyRoo pattern. 

And furthermore, since it doesn't substitute well for the DittyRoo, then it's reasonably certain that there will also be similar problems with most of our other bag patterns as well.

Here's a closeup of the embellishment Noreen
placed on the front pouch of her DittyRoo!

It would require a pretty extensive pattern re-write to overcome there bulking issues and as much as I like the looks of the final result, there's just not enough benefit to justify that much effort.

So there you have it for now...


Special thanks to Noreen for taking time out of her busy schedule to do the testing for us! She did a GREAT job and her bag looks awesome.

(Now I have to send it back to her!)



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