As you can see I cut the printed pattern apart and made it to the size I needed. I carry a lot of junk (no matter how often I clean it out) and need a bigger bag.
When I finally had the size bag I wanted I cut out my main pieces. I pinned them right sides together and stitched a "U" shape with a 1/2 inch inseam. I did have some puckering at the rounded corners so I clipped my corners a bit more than usual. *Don't forget to leave a gap at the bottom of your lining. If you don't you'll be getting your seam ripper and ripping out stitches.*
Then I thought "Hey why not add some pockets? I can't have a bag without pockets." Since I had plenty of extra exterior fabric I stitched two together real quick. They are nothing spectacular but will hold cell phones, chapstick, car keys just the same.
My inside pockets turned out to be thicker than I had expected. My poor sewing machine was a trooper however and stitched right through multiple layers of canvas with only minimal help. Thank God! I arranged and pinned them so I could sew them in when I sewed the exterior and interior fabric together.
Now I missed taking a picture of the next step due to frustration. Not at the instructions but because they were excellent but at my own stupidity. No joke it took me 2 TIMES to comprehend the lining had to be right side out INSIDE the right sides together exterior. See I'm confusing myself again trying to write down what I had done wrong in the first two attempts. Anyway when I post the blog where I borrowed this pattern from read her instructions and save yourself some trouble.
Once you've done this step correctly it should look something like this when you pull the lining through the gap you left open.
This is where you close your gap at the bottom of your lining. Now pardon my hideous stitching job I was at my wits end and just wanted to get the bag itself done. And I finished it in the wee hours of the morning! Yes! Once your gap is sewed shut put the lining into the bag and play with the shape a bit. Because I choose to tackle canvas *still grumbling about it* I had to shake it a bit to puff out my corners and line up the top to do a top stitch around the opening. Follow the "U" shape of the bag do not top stitch over the strap opening.
I made my strap long enough so I could make this a crossbody bag. With toting around my son J it's very important that I don't have to worry about my purse falling off my shoulder constantly. I knew I needed it to be easily accessible and wanted it right at hip level. With my purse on my hip I took my measuring tape to one end crossed it over my shoulder to the other end. I added 2 inches to the length because I put about an inch of the strap into each strap space. So overall I cut 45 inches of fabric for my shoulder strap. I wanted my shoulder strap to look a little bit different and this is what I came up with.
I made a quick stitch across the strap to keep it in place. But don't worry there's a plan to hide the stitching and make it look pretty.
I cut little rectangles and turned them into little covers. Fold over and stitch the top and bottom, my inseam was barely 1/4 inch. Fold over your strap inside out (with your strap inside of it), sew up the side, flip right side out, position where you want it to be, and anchor them down. I stitched my anchor points freehand so I could hide them a bit better.
End result! I'm quite content with how my first little purse turned out. I don't want to make another out of canvas any time soon though. It frays very easily and jammed my machine almost to the point of no return many times. But moving forward I did buy 4 more pieces of fabric to make some more for spring. Very excited about it because my fabric is adorable!
This is NOT my pattern! If you want the pattern for yourself you can find it here. Big thank you to Tiffany at Simply Modern Mom for making this purse available for any and all to copy. Also check out the "All Free Sewing" website, they have SO MANY free projects for any level of sewer.
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