Mary Poppins's Handbag

I made this handbag about a year ago, and since then people have been asking me about it all the time. It’s pretty easy to make, although a little time consuming, and is that magical combination of hip and comfy. It has a lot more room in it than it looks like it should (for example I can fit a bottle of wine in the bottom). I’ve always been planning to make myself another one in a different fabric, so I finally did that for the purposes of this blog.

The pattern I’ve posted here is pretty impressionistic, I.e. Not to scale and not very detailed. That’s because it doesn’t really matter if you get the size or proportions exactly right. Just use my pattern as a guide and make your own pattern pieces for whatever size bag you think you want. I’ve actually made the same bag in beach bag size, and it worked wonderfully like that too. Just remember that the body of the bag is going to end up seeming a lot smaller when the bag is done, so don’t skimp on the size of that.



The idea is that you have different patterns of fabric on the inside, the outside and the pockets. For both of my purse size versions of this bag, the linings for the yoke and the body are different patterns, which I think looks cool. Plus, this is a great way to make something out of bits of fabric that are really too small for anything else.

Also - let me stress the importance of having a helper for this project:





You will need:

2 heavy weight fabrics (canvas or upholstery material)
2 to 4 medium to light weight fabrics
1 button
About 50 inches of 1/2 inch webbing
4 O rings (these can be from curtain hangers)

How to do it:

1. First cut out the pieces. You want the yoke outside and the bag outside to be of heavier fabric. Ideally, the yoke outside should be the heaviest of all. If it isn’t you can use a little interfacing to make it stiffer. For the first bag I made, I used upholstery fabric for the yoke, canvas for the body, and quilting cotton for the pocket and lining pieces.

2. Next sew together the outside yoke pieces at the side edges, right sides together. This is the first mistake I made on the purse I made for this blog post. Instead of doing that, I lined each half of the yoke separately and then had to figure out how to put the two sides together later. Either way will work, but sewing the outsides together first is less of a pain.

3. Sew together the yoke lining pieces together at the side edges, right sides together. Now sew the yoke outside to the yoke lining, right sides together, along the top edge (the edge that has the curves and shapes for the handles). Clip curves and trim corners.







4. Turn the yoke right side out. Press under the raw edges of the lining and outside along the bottom edge. Topstitch along the top edge of the yolk.

5. Now deal with the pocket. The pocket goes into the lining. So, first put one pocket rectangle, centered horizontally, near the top of one of the lining pieces. Pin it down and sew a long narrow rectangle. (This step is similar to step three of the Boulevardier bag) Cut a two ended Y into the rectangle and then turn the pocket fabric through the hole you just made. Press.



6. Now make your button hole, horizontally centered near the top of the pocket. (Button tutorial here http://www.purlbee.com/buttonhole-tutorial/).



7. Now, pin the other side of the pocket to the pocket piece you pushed through the hole, right sides together, and sew all the way around.



8. Now sew your button onto the back fabric of the pocket.

9. Next sew your two bag body outsides together along the curving edge, right sides together. Do the same with the bag body linings. Clip a few places along the curve. Turn the outside right side out and then slip the lining into the outside.

10. Sew very long basting stitches all the way around the top edge on each side. Use these stitches to gather the fabric. Gather it so that it becomes the same circumference as the bottom of the yoke.



11. Insert the top edge of the bag body into the space between the lining and the outside of the yoke and pin.





12. Sew all the way around, as close to the edge of the yoke as possible. The body is done!

13. Now you need to attach the rings that the handles will go through. I actually used curtain hanging rings for these, because I had them around the house. You can also go to a notions store and get various sizes and finishes of ring. To attach them, just run the top of each sticky-uppy part of the yoke through a ring and sew it to itself.





14. Ok, all that’s left to do is make the straps. You want to use fairly heavy fabric for these, because they will get the most wear and tear. Essentially, you want to make a tube of fabric, run the webbing through the tube, and then top stitch both long edges. This is annoying no matter which technique you use. The first time I did it, I made a tube, turned it right side out, and then fed a strip of webbing through it using a large safety pin in the webbing to pull it along. Another way you could try it would be to wrap the webbing in the fabric and then sew it down.

I haven’t made the straps to the new bag yet, because none of the fabric I have looks right with it, so photos of the finished new bag will be coming soon!

Upside down cars are awesome

So I made this bag for Sweet Tea on Sunday, getting almost all the way through before realizing that the pattern of cars on the fabric would be upside down when the bag was closed! Curses! I decided that I was just going to insist that she carry it anyway. Upside down cars are cool, right?

Sweet Tea promised she would carry it anyway. She named it the Boulevardier Bag, i.e. just large enough to carry the few things you might need when promenading on the boulevard. This bag is about 7"x8"x2" with an adjustable over the shoulder strap, a large interior pocket, a zippered exterior pocket, and a fold-over flap.

You will need:
About 1/2 yard of fabric for bag outside.
(I used Echino fabric that I got at Purl Patchwork)
About 1/2 yard of a different fabric for the lining
About 9”x10” piece of fabric for pocket facing
A 5” or 7” zipper
About 7’ of webbing
A square ring and a triglide for making an adjustable strap
A magnetic snap

How to do it:
1. Start by making the piping. You need about 140” of piping for the project. You don’t need to make a single 140” piece (this is basically impossible, considering the width of most fabric bolts). I did mine in about 45” lengths. The piping is optional, but I think it looks cool. If you want to skip the piping, just go ahead to step 2 and ignore any further directions about piping.

Cut the piping on the bias (this means at about a 45 to 60 degree angle from the direction of the woven threads). You want 5/8” seam allowance after the cord is sewn in, so the width of your strip should be a little wider than that. I used kitchen twine to fill my piping, so it only needed to be about 1 3/8 wide.



Then lay twine along the middle of the strip. Leave extra twine hanging out on both sides to make sure you don’t have too little of it. Pin the fabric around the twine.



Now sew the fabric around the twine, keeping the seam as close to the lump of twine as possible. It is much easier to do this with a zipper foot:





2. Next cut out the lining, outside and pocket facing. Here is my pattern with measurements. This pattern already includes 5/8” seam allowance for all the pieces. You can go to the flicker set and download a larger version:



3. Now insert the zipper. You want to put it running horizontally near the top of the front piece. Measure the zipper from the top of the pull to the bottom of the stop. Now draw a line on the wrong side of the front piece that is that long. Now sew around the line to make a long narrow rectangle about 1/4” deep. Cut down the center of the box, starting in the middle, and make a Y shape at either end, going into the corners:



Press the raw edges of the cut under along the lines you just sewed to make a clean looking box:



Put this box over your zipper and pin it down. Sew all the way around. Your zipper is now inserted.



4. Now attach the indented part of the magnetic snap. Center it near the bottom of the font piece of the bag.

5. Next sew the pocket facing to front piece, right side of facing to wrong side of front piece:



6. Now you get to do the piping part. Attach the bottom of the bag to the front, sandwiching a piece of piping in between. The bag pieces are always sewn right sides together. The piping goes in between with the raw edge matching the raw edge of the bag pieces.





Sew as close to the lump of the piping as possible. You should be able to feel where it is and run the zipper foot up next to it. When you open the the seam up is should now look like this:



7. Do exactly the same thing again to attach the bottom to the back/flap piece. WARNING: this is where I made my mistake. If you are using a directional pattern, make sure that it is going the correct direction. This means the opposite direction from the way it goes on the front piece. Here is a drawing which will hopefully make this clearer:



8. Now you need to attach the sides. This part is a little trickier. First, you need to lay your piping out from the top of the front piece all the way along the edge of the bag and turning the corner of the front flap to make sure you have it in the right place when you put the sides on. Pin it in a few places. Now sew a side piece to the side of the bottom piece, sandwiching the piping as you did before, except that this time you will have lots of piping hanging out on either side. Leave 5/8” unsewn on either end of this seam:



Now you are going to need to turn the side and sew it to the back, sandwiching some of the piping that you left hanging out on that side. In order to do this cleanly, you need to clip a diagonal cut from the corner of the side piece toward the end of the seam you just made:







The cut will allow you to turn the fabric and pin it to the back without making a giant lump. Pin and sew to the back, sandwiching the piping. Do this again for the front. Now when you turn it right side out, you will have something that looks like this:



Do this again on the other side.

9. Now take all the rest of the piping that is hanging out of the end of the side seam and pin it along the top of the flap, clipping the raw edge of the piping where you need to turn corners:



Sew this piping down. (You aren’t sandwiching it yet, so don’t get worried).

10. Take a new piece of piping and pin it around the top edge of the body of the bag. Sew this piping down.

11. Now you need to construct the lining. Fold the wider part of the lining to line up with the places where it cuts in. Sew these side seams. Now, pin each bottom corner of the lining to itself to form a flat triangle. Sew along the bottom of the triangle to make a 2 1/2” seam:





So now your lining is the same shape as your bag outside.

12. The next thing to do is to stick the the bag outside, right side out, into the lining, which is still inside out:



Pin the lining to the bag around the bag opening and the edges of the flap. You should be sandwiching the piping you pinned to the outside of the outside of the bag a few steps back. Sew all the way around the raw edges, leaving an approximately 4” area at the end of the flap that you down sew shut. This hole will allow you to turn the back right side out and give you a way to put on the other side of your snap.

13. Now you need to make some clips to avoid lumpiness. First find the place where the flap comes off the body of the bag. Clip diagonally into both of those corners:



14. Next cut off the seam allowance at the corners of the flaps:



15. Ok. Now you have to turn the bag right side out, passing all of it through the hole you left at the end of the flap.

Now your bag should look basically done, except for the strap and the hole at the end of the flap.This is the point at which I realized that I had done this whole bag with the back/flap part turned the wrong way, so now the lovely pattern of cars on my bag was upside down! Too late to turn back . . . .

16. So now you need to figure out where the other half of your snap goes. Line up the flap with the bottom of the bag and mark where the indented part of the snap is. Reach into the hole in the flap and insert that half of your snap. (Different kinds of snaps insert differently, which is why I haven’t included instructions for this part. When you are at the store, ask how the snap goes in and if you need to get a special tool to do it. The ones I used did not need a special tool, but some have a thing you put against the back of the snap to hammer it closed.)

Awesome. You are almost done.

17. Close the hole in the flap by hand stitching it down.

18. You still have to put on the strap. Thread the square ring onto a short length of webbing and make that into a loop. Pin down the loop and sew it to the side of the bag.



Now sew a long piece of webbing (about 5 feet) and sew one end of it around the center post of the triglide. Next thread the other end through the square ring that its already attached to the bag. Then pass that end through the triglide (looping it back on itself). Finally, sew the end to the other side of the bag. (read a tutorial on adjustable straps here)

Voila! Your bag is complete.

Cheap and Easy Produce Bags That Won't Destroy The Planet

We just joined this hippie food coop, and I’ve been feeling guiltier than ever about the absurd number of plastic bags I use. Even though I’m pretty good about bringing reusable shopping bags, I still end up with more plastic bags than I can fill with cat box leavings. Already, I was having nightmares about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Now that I shop at a place that sells nutritional yeast in bulk, posts notices on why they don’t carry Coca-Cola products, and offers workshops in past-life regression and community acupuncture, I feel like Judas every time I reach for one of those clear plastic bags in the produce aisle.

I’m too broke for therapy, so I found a couple yards of plain muslin leftover from another project and set about making washable, reusable, drawstring produce bags. There’s no need to use muslin. I’d like to try using nylon, ideally in a crazy pattern. If you’re getting rid of an old dress with a lining, you could use that. Any fabric will do, so long as it’s light enough not to add to your bill when your organically-grown, fairly-traded, Waldorf-school-educated bok choy gets weighed.


What you’ll need:

Light-weight material, approximately double the size of your finished bag.
Ribbon or string — a shoestring, even — about twice as long as the top of your bag
A sewing machine or some patience (this is totally do-able by hand)
Thread (matching, if you want to be dull)
Pins — mostly straight, one safety


How To Do It:

1. Cut a long, rectangular piece of muslin or other light-weight fabric. About 14"x34" works well. The bag in these pictures was made from a more square piece — about 14”x24” — because that was the size of fabric I had left. Depending on the proportion of your piece of cloth, you may end up folding it differently in step 2.


To get a straighter edge on muslin or calico, make a small cut to begin, and then tear the fabric, rather than cutting the whole distance. Pull evenly on both sides. Feel like a yardage store badass.


2. Fold your fabric in half. You want to end up with a bag that is deeper than it is wide. Pin the sides or side and bottom -- whichever way will leave a short side open to be the top of the bag. The pictured bag has side and bottom seams, but the others I’ve made have had two side seams. It’s not a federal case.




3. When you start sewing the side seam, leave an 1.5-2” unsewn at the top. The drawstring will come out of its tube here, eventually. If you’re doing two side seams, you only need to do this on one side.


Here is an example of me only leaving an inch, and having to fudge later. Leave an inch and a half.

Sew the sides or side and bottom, leaving 5/8” seam allowance.



If you’re sewing a side and a bottom, you’ll have to go around a corner. Make sure the needle is piercing the fabric, lift the foot, reposition the fabric, and lower the foot.




4. TOTALLY OPTIONAL. If you want to show off — or, if like me, you want to try to learn a new sewing technique on a project that doesn’t have to look good — you can fancy it up by flat-felling the side seams. These are rutabaga bags, not your wedding dress, so I figure why not practice on ‘em? But you can just motor ahead to step 5 if you prefer.

Snip most of the seam allowance off of ONE of the pieces of fabric you just sewed together.


(The seam is a bit messy because I was having trouble with the tension on my machine. Repeat after me: This is not my wedding dress.)

Pin the long (5/8”) seam allowance over the snipped side, folding its edge under so you dont’ have a rough edge showing.



Stitch along the folded edge.




5. Finish the open top of the side seam — the one you started 2” down. (If you’re me, realize you forgot to leave it open, swear, and tear out the top 2” of one of those side seams.)

Fold the edge double, pin it, and sew so that the opening of the drawstring tube will not have annoying rough edges.




6. Fold over the top of the bag to make the drawstring tube. (Double fold at the bottom, so there won't be a rough edge.) Sew along the bottom fold, being careful not to sew the two sides of the bag together.




7. String that sucker up.

Cut ribbon or string twice as wide as your bag’s top, plus about six inches.



Turn the bag right side out. Attach a safety pin to one end of the ribbon, and send it into the drawstring tube.



Work the ribbon through the tube by pushing the safety pin and scrunching the fabric over it.


When you’ve got the ribbon through, tie the ends together so you don’t have to restring the bag every dang week.




8. TA-DA!