What Are You Working On? is for all things hand-made, home-made, and creative in a variety of mediums.
Welcome to What Are You Working On? where we talk about (and often display) our handiwork, whether yarn and fabric crafts, woodwork, metalwork, art, or anything else “crafty”.
I prefer small purses. I have back issues so a purse that is about 9-10” wide X 7” tall tall and 3” wide is ideal for me. Most purse patterns aren’t this small. So I adapt cosmetic/whatever bags to make myself a small purse.
For the purse above I started with a pattern from so sew easy. The pattern is extremely basic as you can see.
You can follow their directions (complete with video) and get a reasonable sized cosmetics bag. Or in my case, a holder for an embroidery project. See below
I do two different things when making any bag. The first is that I don’t like the bag to close too closely at the top. I want a bit of a wider opening. To do this I take a 2” width of fabric, the length to match the opening, fold it in half (now 1”), press firmly and sew the folded side to the zipper edge, raw edges facing out. Do that on both sides. As shown below, I used black fabric with a lace edged zipper for a bit of pizzazz. Hopefully you can see the white stitching on the cream zipper.
So I followed the directions and video for all parts except when I come to adding the zipper. The only difference is instead of using the tubular zipper, I put the raw edges of the zipper as the top layer. This way when you flip over the lining, the raw edges of the zipper will be between the outer fabric and the lining. No visible seams. I also like to recess the zipper a bit. It gives a more finished look and gives a better hold on the purse when you pull the zipper. And with a wider area for the zipper, you can do that. You just run a line to top stitching after everything is done around the top about 3/8” down from the top. This also gives you a line of top stitching, which I like.
So that is the embroidery bag. Now for the purse. And I admit I did the embroidery bag not just as something useful, but also to check how I wanted to change the pattern.
First, I decided it was too narrow at the top and too wide at the bottom for me. The height is fine, but a little wider than I prefer at the bottom. So using the pattern as a model, a redrew a pattern on graph paper of what I what I thought would work best for a purse for me.
The cut out square on the bottom is what decides how wide the bottom of your purse will be. As you notice, I’ve made it smaller. I’ve also made the purse a bit wider and lessened the angle to the top.
Now the purse is cut out exactly the same way as is shown on the So Sew Easy video and put together the same way as the cosmetics/embroidery bad. The additional item is the strap. I like a shoulder hung purse, so I cut a 3” wide strip of fabric about 42” long. I heavily starched it and folded the two outer edges into the middle and then fold the strap in half and top stitch both sides. You can add batting or interfacing to the strap. I don’t find it necessary. Then just tuck the strap down into both sides of the purse at the top. There should be room, but you might have to wiggle it, and then sew it down from the inside. You’ll have to turn the purse a bit inside out. And yes, depending on the thread you use, it may show on the outside if someone looks directly at the stitching.
So that’s how it is done. It seems more complicated than it is. Give it a try to get the exact purse you want with the fabric you want. Note: I do not put pockets in mine because it is small enough not to need them.
So What Are You Working On?