Okay, I kept seeing cute little totes that Everyone was making, And I knew how to basically make one, but somel the tuts I've seen kinda confuse me more than help me. So I made my very first tutorial. It's pretty detailed, but thats because I wanted it to be really easy to understand. The purse that results looks like this:
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c42/kaity_vr/BagTut15.jpgOkay, here we go!
First, pick out your fabric. You need the outside fabric and one for the lining:
I chose to use an old t-shirt that I didn't like and some random Pink fabric I had around (Yeah I know the Shirt is Lame, but it was free.)
Then figure out your dimentions. I found this Box that was the perfect size. It was 11" by 9". I traced around the whole thing onto the fabric with a sharpie. (I turned the shirt inside-out, too)
I layered the fabric so I would cut out 2 layers of the brown and 2 of the pink, then cut them all out at once so they are all the same;
Then I sewed the browns together (with the right sides facing eachother and the wrong sides facing out), and the same with the Pinks:
This is the tricky part. You have to pin the two together like this all the way around.
All this is done with the wrong sides facing out. You have to pin the "Lips" together and sew it all the way around, leaving about a 3" opening to turn it inside out. Then you get this:
You have to hand sew that hole closed. So fold it over and pin it together:
Then hand-stitch it closed.
Now push the lining (the pink) into the outer shell, and you get this:
Now, to make the edge look nicer, I folded it over about 1/2 an inch and stitched around:
Ta-da! You have a lined bag! Now we need handles. Again, layer the leftover fabric from which you cut out the bag part so you have two layers of both the Brown and the pink, and draw a rectangle. Mine was 14.5" by 2".
Pin the layers together so they stay put when you cut, and cut out the rectangle. They lay a brown piece over a pink one (With the wrongsides facing out), and pin them together. Do it to the other pieces:
Stitch around all 3 of the sides of both rectangles, leaving one short side open. Turn them inside out and iron them to make them lay straight. It helps if you pin it down:
Now you can possition the handles on your bag where you want them and pin them down:
Sew them down (I went over them twice to make it more secure).
Viola!! I added a button to keep it closed, but you could use velcro or whatever you want. Now comes the fun part, decorating. I embroidered Stars onto mine, but again, you could decorate it However you want.
And thats it! Any questions, please let me know. Also, if you make one, I wanna see it!
Thanks!
