Sewing Tutorial- Flouncy Bag- Part 1

Flouncy Bag from "One Yard Wonders".

I love this book! great for quick projects.

Here is the bag I am going to make

This is the fabric I ordered that I am going to use. I purchased .5 yards of each not knowing what I was going to make with it.

I took out ALL of the patterns before I realized- THERE IS NO PATTERN!!!!!!!!!

They could have said that!

Since I only have .5 yards of each, I am going to make the two large rectangles (outside of the bag) "striped" So I am cutting one rectangle in one fabric, and the other in another fabric, I will then cut them into 3 pieces each and sew them together.

Cut out your rectangles

These are the two long rectangles

When cutting out the rectangle for the bottom oval

Take the rectangle and fold it half long side, then short side and round the edges

here is what it looks like still folded

2 Cut bottoms

The pattern didn't call for interfacing, but I like when a purse has strength built in it. I put fusible interfacing on the bottom two ovals and the inside panels.  

I wrote it into my book so I would remember to always make sure I had interfacing if I go to make this again.

Now for the straps- it calls for a ribbon to be sewn into the middle of one of the strap pieces.

After sewing the ribbon on

Next place the two sides of the strap together and sew up and down the sides- remember to back stitch

Flip it inside out and iron it to keep the edges down

Sew a finishing stitch along the two sides.

Cut 5" off each side

Fold over the ends twice to hide any raw edges- but I wanted to add buttons- so this step I switched up a little from the book directions. One side I folded onto the right side, then the other side I folded onto the back side.

Sew a rectangle to give it a nice flat, finished look.

Sew a button hole close to the end of the wrong side.

When you flip it over and see the right side sew a button about 4" up

Here are the cut outs of the top band- place them right sides together and sew down one of the short sides

open and press with an iron

pin piping to one of the long sides- my band fabric doesn't have a direction, but if yours did the piping should go along the bottom edge

using your zipper foot sew the piping to the band then fold it in half and sew the other short sides together creating the band

here is what it should look like when finished

Next I took my two long rectangles that were for the outside of the bag and I cut them into 3 equal pieces each (10" each). I then put all 6 pieces together -sew and press the seams

here is what it should look like on the right side

sew along on of the long sides of the rectangle the longest stitch length your machine allows for so that you can bunch the fabric (remember NOT to back stitch) You want this to be the same length as the band before you sew the two sides together

You may want to adjust the seams to make each panel even, I wanted my middle panel to be slightly less bunched then the side panels. Adjust however you want yours to look.

place your band inside the outside panels- right sides together and pin all over the whole thing to make sure the bunching goes together well

flip it inside out to allow for easier sewing.

Once this step is done we have the outside of the bag! Part two we will add the bottom of the outside, make the inside, then put it all together!