Clutch Purse

I decided to make clutch purses for my sisters wedding party, including me :). Her colors were Brown and Purple. I couldn't find the right shade for purple satin for the outside to match the dresses so I went the brown and then found some funky fabric with purples and browns for the interior.

I found this great tutorial on craftster and i thought it would be perfect for this project. This bag has a strap and button closure, but i modified it to have a magnetic closure.

To make the satin hold the pleats and to strengthen the cotton I lined all the fabric with fusible web.

I cut each of the liner and main fabric too the same size. I determined this size to be twice as big as I wanted the bag to be. you can figure this out with a piece of newspaper or something and fold the paper "taco" style [vs. "hot dog" style] till you have about what size bag you want.

The smaller rectangle is to make the decorative cap on the top. this needs to be twice as wide and twice as long as the length of the opening at the top of the bag.


This picture shows all of my fabric cut and ironed with the associated cut pieces of fusible web. NOTE: make sure you iron your fabrics ahead of time because the wrinkles will be "locked -in" once you iron on the fusible web.


happy ironing...

Now that everything is ironed! We can move onto the next step.
NOTE: In some cases i think it would have been better for the web to go closer to the edges on both fabrics. The satin tends to fray and having the web going to the edge would prevent more of this from happening. Also the corners of the bag were not as perfectly square because the web didn't get to the corners of the bag. I was just getting the most from the web to have little excess and to not have to run back out to the fabric store to get more web.
forming the pleats, step 1: lay out your piece of fabric wrong side up
forming the pleats, step 2: fold it in half taco style [the size you want the bag] mark the centers with pins and unfold
forming the pleats, step 3: now fold in half hot dog style and bring the fold down about an inch or so
forming the pleats, step 4: fold the top fabric back to make an inch or so wide fold and pin in place. congratulations you have made your first pleat.
forming the pleats, step 5: turn the fabric over and repeat pulling the fabric down the same inch or so
forming the pleats, step 5: fold the top fabric back and pin an inch or so wide piece of fabric in place. you now have two symmetric folds around the center point we found in step 1.
forming the pleats, step 6: repeat this making even pleats back and forth across the center until you have a few inches worth.
what step 6 looks like on the good side of the fabric
forming the pleats, step 7: now carefully sew all the pleats you just made in place
step7 completed
next fold the bag back up taco style inside out. at this point "fluff" the bag/ unfold some of the pleats to create the u shape in the bag. Then square off the top by cutting as shown.
now you need to sew the edges in place. be careful to get both side of the fabric and hopefully some of the feasible web because satin can fray easily. after you have sewn the edge shut on both sides, do a little "stress test" to see if the edges fray if they do re-sew them shut and test again. once the stitching is solid trim the excess on each end.
here are my five finished bag bases, in-side out
here are my five finished bag bases, right-side out.
next since each of the shapes were a little different on the back of the lining I traced the bag.
folded it in half, sewed around three of the edges, leaving the top open and trimmed the three edges i sewed leaving any extra fabric at the top to attach the collar.
the liner fits into the bag.
all of the bags with their liners
now for the collar take one of small rectangles
fold it in half hot dog style
and then in half again taco style
trace the center of the curve of the bag onto the collar with the folded edges to the top.
here is what the trace looks like.
to transfer the curve to the other side of the fabric i put pins in along the way at different junction points
flipped it over and drew a line between the pins on the other side


I then unfolded the collar
sewed along the line i just drew and cut off the excess.
with the bad side still out I unfolded the collar and sewed the edges together
the finished collar
basic idea of how all the pieces fit together.
now time for the magnetic clasp. I folded the liner in half and marker the center just under the line marking the top of the bag.
i placed one side of the clasp under the fabric to mark where my two parallel cuts would need to be made
what one side of the clasp and its "washer" look like with the cut holes
first you place the clasp in the holes with the business end on the good side of the fabric
then you slip the washer in over the tabs
and with a pair of pliers you bend the tabs down to secure the clasp in place

then you repeat on the other side place the other end of the clasp into the side you just installed and mark where you need to make cuts. this way you know the clasp will line up when you are done. finish as before.
to attach the collar fold down the excess on the top of the liner and pin the collar in place around the opening and hand sew in place. [i didn't do this until later but easy enough to do now]
the liner now fits nicely into the bag view 1 and a view of the finished clasp
the liner now fits nicely into the bag view 2
all of the bags semi assembled
now is when i am getting the collar sewn in
and the fancy button sewed onto the front
once the collar and the button are sewed in place carefully sew the collar onto the bag.

ta da! five finished bags.

Bunny Bag and Pencil Case

I turned this much loved jumper into a tote bag and pencil case.


The original, front
and back.

Measuring the largest square i could use.
The cut fabric.

Cutting stripes of fabric for the handles.

Sewing and turning the straps inside out.

Assembly stage 1: sew the sides together.

Stage 2: sew the bottom corners of the bag at a diagonal to square off the bag. As indicated by the pins in this picture.

Stage 3: sew the handle on the bag and you have a cute new bag!


To utilize the rest of the designs i made a pencil case from the remaining bee and hive. I cut a rectangle as long as the zipper i had in stock and wide enough to include all of the design.

Add the zipper
and presto a new pencil case!

Tie Skirt

I thought it would be fun to make a skirt out of ties so i found a lot of ties on ebay for a good price.

I sorted through the ties and picked out ones that were in the burgundy and silver range. Then sorted them again so that patterns next to each other would be complementary.

I then undid the thread at the back of the tie exposing the lining.


Then you cut out the lining at the desired height about 20 inches or so. I ended up wanting a length of about 17 inches and cut it at about 19 inches so i could fold over the hem.


Place two ties next to each other where you have lined up the two ties along the fold. When you begin to sew make sure the points are lined up.

all the ties sewn together. One tip is that the slippier the tie the more likely it will move around when you are trying to sew it. so when pinning the seam you want to sew in place. also pin the rest of the tie open to the ties that have already been sewn to help you keep things in check.

The back of all the ties. I will go back and re fasten the backs together at some point to have a heavier skirt. other plans indicate cutting of the extra length before sewing it together.

I then cut off the ties part at the height i wanted. you could do this earlier if you wanted i didn't know exactly what length i wanted the skirt to be.

I then folded the top over like an inch or so and sewed that in place avoiding sewing over the first and last tie where i would needed to attach the zipper.

close up of the hem.
sewing the hem.

attaching the zipper. I brought the zipper all the way to the top so when i folded the hem back over the extra length of the zipper would be in the hem. to add stability and a more polished look.

If you don't want to do a zipper you could also do elastic in the waist. , just stitch the ties all the way around in a circle instead of leaving an opening.
close up of the top of the zipper

completed zipper. ready to sew the hem on the remaining two ties. Also at this point the skirt was a little too big for me so i added a few pleats in the top of the skirt when i sewed the hem a second tie to yield a better fit.
The zipper was too long on the bottom so i sewed in a zipper stop at the length i wanted and cut the rest off, per the package instructions.



The completed skirt.

Travel Purse

I needed a purse i could zip up and that would hang across my body. I found a couple of tutorials on www.craftster.org/ that i combined to make this purse. I also didn't want to but anything new so i just used things i had around so it could match better, but i like it well enough.

I used this post for the basic purse design. i made 2 inch corner cut outs to create a square base and the basic square is like 9 x 13. I just estimated something that would be a good proportionally to my body and hold enough things.


Step 1: I cut out two patterns so i could cut them out in one go.

Step 2: cut out the liner fabric using the same pattern as the outer fabric.

Step 4: make pockets for the inside. Use the liner fabric a few inches longer than the final product to add some pleats in it to accomidate the items you wish to hold.


Step 5: sew across the bottom then up the sides and in the center to create the desired pocket sizes.

Step 6: here are the pockets that are filled

Step 6: I cut out a hole a little bit smaller than the zipper and then did a zig zag around the edges. Just before i sewed the zipper on a cut a liner fabric the same size because the liner fabric snags easily on the back.

Step 7: I cut an oppening on the back to expose the zipper. This is kind of a messy look, but i will know better for next time :)


Step 8: I created the zipper for the top following this post. Next time i would add some of the liner fabric in this step for a more polished look in the end. a reminder of how to do this can be found in this post.
Step 9: sew around the outside edges except the top and the corners. Then square off the corners as shown above. Also not pictured at this step assemble the liner in the same way as the outside of the bag while inducing the lining pieces when sewing the edges and only square off one corner to allow a way to turn the bag inside out later.

Step 10. Make a long tube of inside out fabric for the strap then turn it out.

Step 11: Start the assembly process. With the main bag turned inside out push the strap down to the bottom of the bag, pin the straps in the corner to keep them in the desired place.
Step 12: add the liner to the outside bag and strap so the good sides are facing each other. Sew around the top edge.

Step 13: turn the bag right side out through the hole in the lining.

Step 14: square off the corner of the liner. tuck in the outer edges so there are no stray threads.

Step 16: The final bag overall [above] and inside [below]. I also added a little green ribbon to the zipper pull to make it easier to use.