Sewing

January 21, 2014

Pleated Bag Tutorial:

I love this bag. Its the perfect size for all my things.

Ok so lets get to making her! lol First thing I did was cut the shape of my fabric. I made the bag 23 1/2 in wide. As you see below. And of course you cut two of these.

Next is I made the ruffle pleats that’s in the bag. On the blog I followed for this she has several in hers, but I do not like a lot so I only did big semi big ones.

After I made the pleats for both pieces it came out to being 13 1/2 in wide when done.

Then I sewed the pleats down. When I sewed that(took like 2 min) I put right side facing right side and I sewed all the way around. MAKE SURE TO LEAVE TOP OPEN.

So, exterior part of bag is done. Next lets work on the strap part for on top.

On the tutorial she suggested to cut this piece about 30 in long and shorten when needed. But I already know my bag is 13 1/2 on one side so do that twice is 27. So I made my piece about 3o in long and 5 win wide. In the pic this is it folded over.

The bag is still inside out. so I placed right to right side as you can see pinned it across. but I had some left over. So I went ahead and sewed that and then trimmed the extra.

As you can see I trimmed it and then I sewed all the way around.

And this is how it looks. So now, lets work on the interior.

So I lay the exterior on top of the fabric for inside.(and this is folded over. we nee 2 pieces) Trim around it and make it the same as the other side as best as you can.

Its not perfect, (But I love imperfect things!) hehe. Now we are going to work on the pockets.

I wanted 2 for this bag. The long rectangle one is for my pens and stuff. and then the square one is for my cell phone. These are folded right sides to right sides. and I sew on the sides and top part. Leave folded part alone.

This is how mine looked when done. PLEASE keep in mind I did not give any measurements for my pockets because that is a decision for you to make. You might not want pockets or maybe just 1. Let yourself get crafty.

I only took a pic of 1 of the pockets I pinned on. Just place the pocket where you want it to go and sew around

Here is both my pockets. I put my cell phone pocket more to the left. I wanted it on the side, in the bag. Now lets dew up the interior part.

Put right sides to right sides. and sew around. (just like when doing the exterior) After I finished it I set it to the side and started on my strap.

So I made my strap 42 in long and 5 in wide. lol yes I know that is long to some but I like my bags to not be so close to my arms. Also I tripled up my fabric to make the strap very sturdy. I pinned it down like you see and sewed down. When I finished I trimmed the excess that was next to my sew line.

And then last I put my straps in between the exterior and interior. Pinned it down, sewed around. and there you have it.

The fabric bow I added to give it a cute look. It is a great summer bag. It makes me miss summer more!

Hope you enjoyed this. And her tutorial that I used is on a previous post.

JANUARY 20, 2014

Little Tote Tutorial:

This did not take me 30 minutes to make! I think maybe total of 20 min. Super easy!!

First I cut all my pieces. 2 long pieces for strap, that measured 13 in long and 4 in wide. The two wider pieces(outer and inner bag) were 14 in wide and 9 in long.

First I went ahead and sewed the straps, as you can see. Then I set those to the side.

Next, I folded over the 2 larger fabric pieces. Right side to right side, as you see in the picture, then just sewed along side the edges. Leaving the fold alone and the top part opened. ALSO at the two corners, where fold is, I sewed diagonally and trimmed the corners.

Next is the hardest part to me. Folding down both ends at the top, so strap can be sewn in middle. They always kept coming apart, so I aligned them together and then pinned each side as you can see here.