Making Bags and Purses

I usually concentrate mainly on making garments; however, lately my focus has been on making a purse and a bag.  The change in my sewing focus occurred after a friend gave me a piece of fabric that was printed with lots of shoes and purses.  My friend gave me the fabric because she knows how much I love shoes.  I decided to use the fabric to make a purse.  I took McCall’s  M6532 out of my pattern stash and cut out the bag.  Once it was cut, I knew it was too large to be a purse.  I think it will be an overnight bag or a sewing project bag.  I can’t tell you I enjoyed making this bag.  I didn’t!  It was very cumbersome and hard to handle under the presser foot.  The main part of the bag consisted of 4 layers:  the main fabric, a medium weight fusible fleece, fusible Peltex interfacing, and the lining fabric.  In addition to those layers, the straps consisted of the main fabric doubled over and lined with a medium weight fusible fleece.  So, this purse required some heavy duty sewing with a denim needle.  The bag also had pull-tabs at each end made in the same manner as the straps.  However, they were doubled over to make the tabs and sewn right onto the center end seam.  The machine was required to sew through the four layers on the main part of the bag and the four layers on the top of the bag as well as sewing through both layers of the tab at the same time.  My Pfaff Creative Icon and I were not up for that challenge!  I couldn’t even get the seam to stay under the presser foot.

Finally, tired and exasperated, I decided to call my neighbor who makes purses and has a heavy-duty single stitch machine.  She told me to bring it to her and we would make it work.  After another two and one-half hours, Linda McCoy was able to sew the top of the bag on for me.  We did away with the pull tabs at the ends of the bag.  I think I now understand why having a commercial sewing machine would make a project like this a lot easier.  No, I will not be using this pattern again unless I make some modifications to it.  Pictures of the bag are shown below.

 

Recently, we were invited to a surprise birthday party for a friend.  I needed a quick birthday gift to sew.  I knew I had a pattern for a small crossover bag that I worked on about two years ago.  I sewed three of them and made some changes in the pattern after making the first one.  I added pockets for credit cards and drivers license and also made the bag just a little larger.  The larger version made it easier to also carry a checkbook.  The last version I made is large enough to carry all my essentials (money, credit cards, driver’s license, cell phone, pen, and comb) and yet small enough that I cannot overload it.  I no longer have the sore shoulder I used to get from carrying a bag too heavy for me.  You can view these purses on my post of August 16, 2019.

I decided to make one of those bags for my friend.  I made it just a little larger than the last one I made.  The cover and lining piece when cut measured 9” x 14” instead of 8 ½” x 13” like the previous one I made.  I used a piece of decorator fabric I had on hand.  Quilting cotton would also work fine for making one of these purses.  I used a piece of low loft batting between the fabric and the lining.   I used the same fabric for the strap with a piece of batting inside the folded fabric. 

Pictures of the finished purse are shown below. 

 

I hope your sewing projects are going well.  Don’t be discouraged if they don’t all go as planned.  Sewers are known for their ingenuity.  You can resolve whatever sewing problems come your way! 

Judy