Buckram: putting the 'construction' in 'construction techniques'

So here's that bag again, in the process of being retrofitted with two-ply a.k.a. crown buckram:

What I did was cut the buckram to slightly smaller than the size of each piece without seam allowance,

then tuck it in beneath the seam allowances, open each pair of seam allowances flat, and glue them down to the buckram on each side. The layers of batting and interfacing, not to mention the buckram itself, kept the glue from bleeding through to the outside.

The glue I used is some unidentified fabric glue I got from Kaufland back in Germany. Whatever it is, it's definitely neither Elmer's nor cyanoacrylate, but that's all I can say.

Binder clips make good clamps.

That loop off to the side will become the handle.

Why not sew the buckram in, you might ask? Well, this is very heavy stuff—even if you do trust your machine with it, and have a free arm, it's a real pain to get the right parts of a small project under the needle. Kind of like sewing doll clothes if they were made out of oaktag. And I didn't want any topstitching on this project, either.

I used this stuff because I happened to have lots of it left over from several years ago, back when I was trying my hand at making a few hats. It isn't the easiest thing to deal with and can't be washed, but if you're looking for something 'sculptural', it does the trick.

Many stores don't carry this weight; you can get it online from places like Judith M or Farthingales, to name a couple. The two-ply is two fairly heavy weights of buckram fused together, while others are single-ply and quite a bit softer. It will generally come rolled up in a long box or tube, since there's no non-destructive way to fold it. (Keep that in mind if you're in Canada; a US supplier may try to ship UPS.) I'd have to see how it would compare to something like Timtex, but I have a feeling it's a great deal stiffer than that.