Here's the promised tutorial...I may have lied when I said it was good for a beginner
...we'll see
1. Start with some fabric for the outside, lining, and strap.
I just use a magazine to judge how large I want my pieces to be...not precice...I know, but it works for me. Some rough dimensions: lining & outer body pieces 12" long, 10.5" wide
2. So, cut out outer and inner fabric (two of each). You can also cut out interfacing if you will use it.
3. For the straps measure the width of the bottom against the pieces of outer/inner fabric you cut out. You want the straps to look like this before cut out.. Rough strap dimensions are 25" long by 4" wide @ bottom
this is that they'll look like in end (after bag is complete)...
so we want to cut each side out to nearly equal the width of the bag (is that clear? It may become clearer in a second).
4. You want to cut out 8 pieces total of "strap" fabric. I eyeballed my angles but you don't want to make the length of the straps too thin or you won't have room to sew the pieces together.
5. Now we're going to cut out our little edge pieces of fabric. Cut out four triangles (only four because we are only putting them on the outer fabric). They rougly measured 4" on each side. While you're cutting the triangles it may help to put them against the outer/inner fabric edges to see if they will fit like this...
Cut out 4 like this..
Leave a half inch around the edges of the triangle for seam allowances.
This is what they look like pinned on.
6. Add whatever things you may want on the inside of the purse (pockets, tags, whatever). I used velcro closure. Now the body of the purse is ready to go.
7. Back to those pesky straps...Now we want to pin the pieces of strap together (at the straight edge) by twos as shown. Then sew those suckers together like so...
8. Now put the angled edges of two (newly formed) strap pieces together to form two new larger pieces like this one...
9. Take those two big ole weird looking pieces and sew them together at the top (smaller end not the wider end) like so...
10. Almost to the end of the strap stuff...now take that really big piece and fold it over itself on the wrong side and pin edges and sew...
11. Now turn that sucker to the right side...it takes patience..
Yay!! This is your finished strap...
12. Back to the purse body...sew the triangles of strap fabric onto the outer fabric (repeat 4 times)...
13. When finished with other pockets (if you want any) sew on velcro closure...
and lay outer and inner pieces together on their wrong sides. Sew around edges but leave space at the bottom of the lining pieces (like 3 inches)...
14. Getting ready to wrap it up!! Place your strap inside your outer part (on wrong side still). Once you situate the strap (to look the way it should in the end), place your lining part inside the outer (lining part on the right side.
15. Sew that sucker shut at the top edge...
16. Then pull it on through...
Phew!! There you have it!
The one I made is just big enough to hold a magazine, next time I'll make it a bid wider and taller.
Sorry for all the pictures but I hope they helped...If there are any unclear statements please let me know...This is my first tute so it could need a lot of tweaking.
button to nominate it!
