Making A Pleated Fall Purse

I love pink and brown together in the Fall. Saturday I worked on my new Fall pocketbook, featuring those colors. I just can't seem to call it a purse, even though that's what the title of this post says!



When making a pocketbook with two pieces of fabric, adding a couple of pleats on each side of the bag add a little special touch to it. All you do is fold over 2 small pleats 4 inches from each side of the bottom portion and pin. You can see my basic pocketbook tutorials, all 5 parts, on my side bar under Tutorials.



Pin the upper fabric and pin some more.



Sew the seam.



Then continue on with layering the outside bag pieces with quilt batting which will look like this.



Pictures of making the handles.




I want to make a matching key fob this week.

Kim's Pocketbook

Look at this great pocketbook that Kim made with the help of my recent pocketbook tutorial posts! She did such a great job and I can tell that she is a good seamstress. Thank you Kim for showing us your project.

The pocketbook tutorial is on the left under labels if you want to give it a try too!

Pocketbook Tutorial Part Five

All of the previous posts in this series are shown under Labels on the side bar.

The next thing to do is make the handles. Lay the previously cut strips of fabric out on the ironing board and press under about 1/2 inch on each of the long sides like this. Fold the strips in half length wise and press. Cut pieces of quilt batting to fit inside the strips. You can use left over scraps if you have them.



Then stitch along the lengthwise edge about 1/4 inch or less on both sides. If the handles want to twist a little bit, don't worry, after being ironed and sewn on the bags, they'll be fine. It might be helpful to use a quilting or walking foot on your machine if you have one. Just go slow and keep adjusting the handles so that the edges are even.



Pin the handles on each side of the outside of your bag with right sides together. I placed mine 3 inches from each side of the bag. Sew them on using a 1/4 inch wide seam.



Make the loop for the closure by cutting a 1 1/2 inch wide piece of fabric 7 inches long. Fold it in half lengthwise right sides together and press. Stitch a very narrow seam on one side. Then turn it right side out. I use a safety pin for this. It seems like it won't turn, but it will! Iron it flat and press it like this. Then sew down one side across the bottom and up the other side.




Pin it to the center of one side of your outside bag, right sides together and stitch down like you did the handles.

Now, put your lining and outside bag one inside the other right sides together. It doesn't matter which one is on the outside as long as they are right sides together. First pin the side seams making sure they are lined up. Then pin the rest of the bag like this.



Sew a 1/2 inch seam all the way around the top.


Then you can turn the bag right side out by pulling the outside bag through the opening you left in the bottom of the lining.





Press the top edge and pin it well all the way around. Then top stitch a 1/4 inch seam all the way around. You will need to keep adjusting and slightly stretching the fabric to prevent puckers. Don't worry, you'll probably have a pucker or two, but it'll be ok.

We're almost finished!

Next sew up the opening in the lining by pressing the edges together and sewing it together with the machine.

For the hard insert that goes in the bottom of the bag, I use 2 pieces of cardboard cut to the measurements of the bottom of the bag. This one was 4 1/2 inches by 8 3/4inches. Cover this with matching fabric. Cut the fabric big enough to allow for your seams and especially enough on the end that'll be hand sewn. Just sew the rectangle with the machine right sides together, leaving one end open, turn, insert the cardboard, tuck in the fabric and hand stitch the open end. Place this in the bottom of the bag. This makes the bag extra sturdy.

I usually make a button to match the bag using a button covering kit which costs less than $2.00. But, you could find a pretty button or antique button to match! I sew this from the outside instead of coming through the inside of the bag. It looks neater than having a knot on the inside on the lining.



Here is the finished bag!





I hope this has been clear. I will try to answer any questions you may have.

If anyone makes a bag using this tutorial, please send me a picture. I'd love to show case it on my blog.

Pocketbook Tutorial Part Four

All of the other posts in this series are under "Pocketbook Tutorial" in the labels section of my side bar.

Its time to sew the pockets on the lining.

First we'll take the pocket that we cut on the fold which is the width of the lining and sew it on like this. First I made a top stitch at the top near the fold about 3/8inch wide. Then pin the pocket on the lining. This pocket is wide enough that the edge will eventually be sewn in with the seam of the lining. For now sew starting at the top on one side all the way down, across the bottom and up the other side in a "u" shape, using about a 1/4 inch seam. Then decide how wide you want your pockets. I usually make mine around 4 inches wide. You'll end up with 3 pockets about 6 inches deep and 4 inches wide. I also like to make one narrow one that will hold a pen. I'm always looking for a pen in my pocketbook! The finished pocket will look like this.




I like to make another pocket on the other side of the lining using a different fabric. This one will be made from the tractor fabric. The size is up to you. Sometimes I make it the size of a cell phone. Sometimes it depends on how much fabric I have left. This one is 13 inches by 8 inches. The way I make this pocket is to turn down 1/2 inch at the top of the pocket and press. Then turn this down right sides together and sew a 1/2 inche seam on each side. Then turn this right side out, pushing out the corners well. Press. Then you can stitch a seam across the bottom of the hem you just made. Sew the seam from the bottom side of the fabric. It'll look like this.




Then pin the pocket onto the other lining piece and stitch around it like you did the first one and make your seams for the pockets. If you make it small for a cell phone, of course you'd only sew around the outside edge.




Finally you can start sewing the panels together.

Pin the lining pieces right sides together on the bottom seam. Stitch a 1/2 inch seam leaving about a 5 inch opening for turning the bag later. Press the seam open. If you press the bottom seam open before sewing the side seams it makes it easier to sew the bottom ends later. Then pin the side seams together and sew a 1/2 inch seam on them as well.




After you've sewn the bottom and side seams you'll see how to make the bottom square. Simply press each end together, matching seams and pin like this.



Then sew a 1/2 inch seam straight across. You can turn it to see what it looks like if you want, but you will need to turn it back so that the right sides are on the inside when sewing the outer and inner panels together.

Then you will do the same thing for the outer panels, except you won't leave an opening for turning. Sew the bottom seam first and press the seam open.



Turn the sewn together panels right side up and stitch a line on each side of the seam 1/4 inch away from the seam. I just put the edge of the presser foot on top of the seam and that gives me an accurate 1/4 inch distance. This reinforces the bag and makes the bottom look nice.



Then sew the outside seams. Make sure the side seams match if you added ribbon or used two fabrics on the front. Sew the ends of the bottom just like you did for the lining.




Turn the bag right side out. Isn't that cute?



In the next post in this series we'll make the handles and loop for the closure, sew the outside and inside panels together and hopefully finish this bag!

Pocketbook Tutorial, Part Three

All of the previous posts in this series are shown on the left sidebar under "pocketbook tutorial".

This picture shows me sewing around the edge of the quilt sandwich using a 1/4 inch seam. You might have to stretch the fabric a little and remove some of the pins as you go. I also increase the stitch length some.



When you get the edges all sewn, remove all the pins and trim the excess backing and quilt batting even with the panel top like this. You can save the quilt batting strips if you wish for use later in the handles.



Iron the panels with short up and down pressing movements.

You can leave the panels like this or you can dress them up a little bit. Sometimes I top stitch 1/4 inch on each side of the seam. This time I'm adding some grosgrain ribbon. Cut the ribbon a little longer than the width of the panel. Pin it on centering it on the seam line all the way across. Then edge stitch the ribbon on both edges like this.







Trim off any extra ribbon on the edges of the panel.

Now its time to cut out the lining. Just lay the finished outside panel on top of your lining fabric and use it for the pattern. Cut two lining pieces the same size as the two outside panel pieces.

The inside pockets need to be sewn on the lining before any more sewing is done. I cut one piece of the green fabric on the fold, 16 inches wide by 7 inches deep. This gives you a double piece of fabric with the fold at the top on the 16 inch wide edge. I also cut a single layer of fabric from the tractor fabric which is 13 inches wide by 8 inches deep.

Its also a good time to cut out the handles. Cut two handles 4 inches wide by the width of the fabric on the fold.

These are pictures of the pockets, lining, handles and outside panels.






In the next post we'll sew the pockets on the lining, make the handles and start making this bag come together!

Pocketbook Tutorial, Part Two

This is part two in this pocketbook tutorial series. All the posts for this series are under "Pocketbook Tutorial" underneath Labels on the sidebar.

I decided to make another John Deere Pocketbook in the smaller size. My husband is selling these to farmers for their wives and so this will be the 4th one I've made. I personally do not want to carry a John Deere pocketbook, but hey, whatever sells is great! I won't quilt this bag, but instructions for quilting the panels are shown here: Quilted Bag I would suggest making the quilt lines in a two inch grid if this is the first time you've machine quilted. The bags turn out really nice when they are quilted. The bag I carry now has a two inch quilted grid and I love it.

This pocketbook will have a tractor print for the outside with a dark green bottom. I also have a little green plaid fabric from a previous bag to possibly use for pockets or the hard insert that goes on the inside.

This is the fabric:



First press your outer fabric. You can use just one fabric if you like. If you are just using one fabric, cut two of your outer fabrics from the pattern in Part One.

If you want to use two different fabrics, you will notice on the picture of the pattern in Part One that there is a line at the bottom called the design line. I cut the bottom part in the dark green and the top part in the tractor print. I just added 1/2 inch seam allowance to each piece so that the finished panels would be the same size as the pattern. The pattern says to cut the panels so that the side seams are parallel with the lengthwise grain of the fabric if it isn't going to be quilted. I'm not quilting this bag, so will follow the directions.

Cut two of each, one for the front panel and one for the back panel, like this:



The finished sizes (if you don't want to make a pattern) are 10 inches by 15 inches for the top piece and 5 1/2 by 15 for the bottom part. The two squares that are cut on on the bottom part are 2 1/2 inches square.

Just make sure that any directional designs are going the right way. My tractors need to be right side up!

Pin the top and bottom pieces right sides together like this:



Make a 1/2 inch seam, press open the seams and the two panels will look like this:



Then you will need to cut two pieces of quilt batting and two pieces of plain fabric for the backing a little bigger all the way around than the panels. I just use any fabric I have on hand for the backing fabric or you can buy some inexpensive fabric if you don't have any. If you wanted to quilt a grid on the panels, now's the time to draw your lines like in the link above.

Make two quilt sandwiches with the front panel face up on top, the quilt batting beneath that and the plain fabric on the back. The bottom fabric will not be visible when the bag is finished, so don't worry about what it looks like. Smooth out the top fabric well and pin it all together really well like this:



Be sure to position the pins so that you can sew over them around the edges. In the next post in this series, we'll sew the quilt sandwich around the edges, trim off the excess fabric, and cut out the lining, handles and pockets.

Pocketbook Tutorial

The Pink John Deere pocketbook that was donated to a little country church's fundraiser auction sold for $40.00. I was pleased with that. I just didn't want it to sell cheaper than what I could have sold it for. I would rather sell the bag and donate the money to the church if that was going to happen. Here is a picture of the bag if you missed it.

I have been thinking about doing a pocketbook tutorial series. I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested, but I have had some interest by email, so I have decided to do it!

This will be helpful to me as well. Once I do the tutorial, I'll have all the directions written down for my future use.

My disclaimer is that I'm not an expert seamstress by any means! These instructions will show how I make the bags based on the directions that came with the pattern, as well as my own ideas. I'm sure a more experienced hand bag seamstress could give me some pointers on how to do things easier and better and I welcome any suggestions.

I'm going to make a bag from the beginning and do several posts describing what I'm doing as I cut and/or sew.

So here is the first post:

I have been making the bag in two basic sizes. A medium sized bag and one a little smaller. I also made 2 children's bags. Its easy to change the pattern to fit the size you want. This is a picture of the pattern for the larger bag that I make. It measures 18 inches wide and 14 1/2 inches tall. The squares cut out on each side of the bottom are 2 1/2 inches square.



My pattern is getting a little tattered and I need to make myself a new one. I think I might just start cutting out the bags on my rotary cutting board. I have the measurements and the finished cut pieces would be more accurate. To make your own pattern just cut the pattern in the measurements given. Then cut out the squares at the bottom. That's all there is to the pattern.

To make the smaller bag I just folded the pattern in the middle like this. Its exactly the same size as the larger bag except its 15 inches wide.



The bag can be made all one color or you can use a different color for the bottom. I have made the bottom part one color and a top 2 or 3 inch wide section another color. The bags can be quilted or not quilted. You can embellish the bag with ribbon, fringe, leave them plain or whatever you wish. I like to look at other people's handmade bags on Ebay to get ideas. The different designs you can come up with are endless.

You will need 1 yard of your outside fabric and 1 yard of your lining fabric. This is really too much, but any extra can be used to make pockets and if you wish, accessories.

I use quilt batting in my bags whether or not they are quilted. This gives the bag some body and the handles a little padding. At first I was able to use leftover quilt batting I had on hand, but I soon ran out of that. I like to buy crib size quilt batting because the size is easier to handle.

I'll be posting more in this series as I work on my next pocketbook.