Sewing Economist: November 2009

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]