Meagan's How To: How to Make a Cute Purse (part 3)

Hello Again,

Welcome to day 3 on making a purse. I wanted to let you know that although I am posting the instructions in multiple days, the purses themselves didn't take that long.

So, now onto to adding the lining

Step 20 - Adding Darts to the Lining
Just like in step 3, you will need sew the darts into the lining of both the front and back sections.

Step 21 - Upper Inside Edges
Stitch upper edges of front and back lining sections together in a 1/4" seam, pivoting at small circles as shown like in step 4. Now the lining will be held together at only these sections.

Step 22 - Press Edge for Zipper
Turn in 1/4" on upper edge of front and back lining and press

Step 23 – Stitch Lining

For this step, they have you sew closed the lining, however, then you will need to hand sew the zipper to the lining – YUCK! I tried. It was messy, ugly, time consuming and not as strong. Instead, skip this step until after the zipper is in.

Step 24 - Stitch Lining to Zipper

They would have you slip-stitch the lining to the zipper. This is how bad I did on that!

For the next purses, I sewed the zipper to the lining first, trying to stay as close to the pressed edge of the lining and the zipper without getting too close. If you are too close to the zipper, the lining will get caught in the zipper you open and close it. I pinned the lining in place and then machine stitched it in place. I should warn you that I did have to go back on some sections since my lining slipped a little and my stitch missed, but it was easy to correct. I tried to follow the same line as my outer bags seam.

Step 24b – Sew Lining

With right sides together, sew the lining MOSTLY CLOSED, leaving a 2-3” section un-sewn in the bottom (not near the part that you would see). You can now turn the purse right side out through this hole. Once it is the right way, you can slip-stitch the 2-3” hole that you left in the bottom.

Step 25 – Tabs – This was done already

This is the step that again, they would have you hand sew a part that was done much easy by machine. In step 14, I sewed close the entire bag, including these tabs. I actually sewed over them twice to give them double strength. I can’t imagine slip-stitching these. They would not have been very strong and my ugly stitches would have been right out there where everyone could see them.

Step 26 -28 – Strap (this could have been done at any point earlier)

Turn in your seam allowance on long edges of strap and press. It also makes things a little easier if you clip the corners a little to allow the fold.

With wrong sides together (right sides out), fold strap along foldline, press (I think I did not press). Stitch close to pressed edges.

Turn in seam allowance on each end of strap and press.

Step 29 – Attach Strap

Insert each end of strap through D-Ring on tabs, turning back 1” on ends. Stitch close to inner pressed edge, through thickness. Again, I double stitched this. This was one where they show machine sewing and I could not fit this much fabric through my machine, so I hand sewed this part.