Tina Purse Sew a Long Day 3

Let's get stitching!

Thread up your machine with a matching thread color.

Get your four side purse pieces and lets sew up the side seam.  Remember if you are using faux leather, you don't want to use pins to hold the pieces together to sew.  Binder clips work great for stabilizing your pieces without damaging the fabric.  My sample is not a fabric that is damaged by pins, so I'm doing it the old fashioned way! 

Sew the two side seams.  I have selected Fusible Fleece for my side pieces.  Since the fabric is not prone to excessive fraying, I'm going to trim my seam allowance close to the stitching (rather than clipping the curve)
to remove extra bulk. The top piece is trimmed.

 Press the seam.  I pressed from the inside first.

Then I laid the pieces right side out flat and pressed from the top since this fabric does not like to hold a press!







Now cut the fabric band out (as directed).   I like to use a quilt ruler to cut out squares and rectangle.  Its fast, easy and you will get nice 90 degree corners!

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Turn under the raw edges on the long sides and stitch.  My fabric has a knit backing, so I only turned it under once.  If your fabric might fray or get 'thready', you might want to turn it twice, or serge or zig zag the raw edge before turning under.

Following the pattern directions, thread your rings onto the fabric band so it looks like this:

Now we will add the rings/band to the center front of the purse.  Your band will be a little longer than the width of the purse front piece.  Because different weights of fabric draw up differently, you might have a lot of extra fabric.  That's ok, we will trim away the excess.

Spread the fabric band so it looks nice on your bag.  You want the upper edge about 1" down from the top of the center front piece.  Ease in the fullness with a couple of pleats.  If you are feeling fussy about it, you could gather the fabric with a running stitch, but I just pinned in a couple of pleats where I wanted them.  Baste the piece in place and trim away the excess band.

Those rings are heavy!  Take a few basting stitches through the ribbon behind the rings to attach it to the center front piece.  This will keep the rings from drooping when the purse is done!

Sew the front pieces together at the bottom seam and press open.

Now lets sew the sides to the center of the purse.

Begin by matching up the bottom seam you just sewed to the side seam of the side pieces.  Working out from there, pin the pieces together all the way to the top of the bag.  Match the points and the upper edges of the bag pieces.

 Sew the seam you just pinned and repeat on the other side.  Turn the purse right side out to see how it looks!  Give those seams a press.

Find your strap loop fabric pieces.  There should be 2 of them cut with your pattern.  In order to keep these pieces from adding too much bulk to the upper seam of the purse, the strap loops are made a little differently than the strap.  As directed in the pattern, turn the raw edges to the center of the strips and topstitch to hold the fabric in place.  I sewed mine from the back side.  You can sew from either side.  Since my fabric wouldn't hold a press, by sewing from the back I could see that the edges match up so the width is consistent. 

Cut each one in half so you have 4 pieces.  Here are the finished loop straps from the right side..

If you have purchased ready made straps, you are done for today, come back tomorrow!

For this sew a long, I am making 2 straps.  At first I was going to make the straps from the lining fabric, but once I got the bag to this stage, I didn't like the way the lining looked for the straps (even though it would be easier to work with!).  After experimenting with the side bag fabric I determined that it would make nice straps, even though it would not hold a press very well.

If you are making straps, cut 2 pieces of fabric 3 1/2" by 30" long.  You can make your straps longer or shorter if you like, this is just the length I like!

I hope you have a bias tape maker, it's such a useful tool!  Thread the fabric strip through your bias tape maker and press the strip.  Follow the pattern directions to turn under the ends.  Because my fabric is very thick and knit, I decided to not turn under the ends - too much bulk!  To get the fabric started through the bias tape maker, I cut a point in the end of the strip.

 My fabric was not creasing tightly, but the iron gave it enough of a crease to guide the strip along while stitching.  Take your strip and stitch the open side.  You may find that the strap twists a little when you stitch the first side. 

If this happens, don't panic!!   When you stitch the other (fold) side, start at the same end you did for the open side and top stitch the length of the strap.  It should lay flat after the second side is stitched.

Nice and flat now!

I cut the ends of my straps straight across.  As I mentioned earlier, this fabric was quite bulky and since it is a knit backing, fraying was not going to be an issue.  I did not turn under the ends of the straps.

Find the rings for the ends of the straps.  Loop the strap through the ring and stitch to close. The square with a box in the center makes a really strong attachment.  As I mentioned earlier, my fabric is really bulky, so I sewed just a box and cut the ends cleanly without turning under the fabric.

Fold up about 1 1/2" - 2" on each strap.  Make sure you have a right side for each strap when you sew the ring on the second end of the strap.  You want the turned up piece on each end to be on the same side of the strap!  Your straps now should look like this.

Good progress today!  Come back tomorrow for more stitching fun.