Adding my personality to the bag and it really ended up being a great dumpling shape. This
is my first attempt ever at making a bag. When I first saw this, it's the nane bag from Rejina Pyo,
I love the shape of it. I love that it looked relatively simple,
until I got into actually making it. I bought this beautiful
green fabric, and if you can tell, I love green. And I thought it'd be really fun to do the lining
in a contrasting pink. So today, we're going to attempt to diy this bag. We will see how that
goes. I am extremely intimidated. This video is in partnership with dirty labs detergent. I am
very excited to introduce this product to you. They are a new, asian owned and created laundry
detergent brand that is shaking up the cleaning industry. Their ingredients are extracted directly
from nature, or synthesized with natural materials that are readily biodegradable.
There are no sulfates and dyes in their laundry detergent. Something that I do when I do all of my
thrift flips is wash all of my clothes before, but I am definitely guilty of not washing my
fabric before doing any of my diys, which doesn't help when it comes to color transfer or shrinkage,
especially with dyed fabrics, and a handbag that I'll be carrying under my arms. I definitely
need to wash it before, and you can see the difference in concentration. You only need like
a teeny bit of the dirty labs detergent versus traditional laundry detergent, and this is already
laundry detergent that is considered eco-friendly. It's currently only available in the US but they
have plans to expand to Canada and international very soon. So I put the fabric in a laundry bag,
just to protect it from tumbling too much in the laundry machine, since the fabric is raw cut and
woven. I'm using the fragrance free detergent from dirty labs this time, but they also have
the signature scent which has bergamot, magnolia and cedar. So after washing and air drying we can
go straight into the diy. As usual I planned everything out to the best of my ability.
This took me..five hours of thinking? I found a couple of tutorials online about making
a lunch bag and making a makeup bag and it's pretty similar. So I have the green fabric,
the pink lining and very heavy duty interfacing to give the structure. The weight of this fabric is
pretty heavy already, but just in case I want to add interfacing to it just to
strengthen up that shape because I do think that this is a very structured bag.
These are the pattern pieces you'll need. You can screenshot the next few shots to make your own
version. Keep in mind though that throughout the tutorial, I'll have notes on what needed
improvements. The nane bag is actually a cylinder, but I wanted to make mine more of a dumpling
shape, so my pattern was slightly different from the original. First iron on all four of
your interfacing pieces to the body fabric. I cut two extra long pieces because we're going
to be pleating the fabric. The interfacing is just a bit smaller than the body because I was worried
that my sewing machine wouldn't be able to handle the thickness. Then on the two large fused pieces,
round the top corners as well as mark two inches in from each side of the bottom.
I gathered the base and shortened to 14 inches length, making sure to avoid the
two inch marks on each side. Pin the pleats in place, and lay them right sides together.
Straight stitch across the bottom from where you marked.
Okay don't laugh at my similar color thread. This is what you get for ordering off aliexpress.
Now taking the two side pieces, open up the edges of the body and attach right sides together.
I did this by sewing down the sides and half the
bottom before flipping the fabric to the other side and continuing.
It's looking good so far. And done! I wish I didn't have to sew lining but that's what you
gotta do. Do the same thing but for the side pieces of the lining only, leaving the bottom
open. Initially my side pieces were shorter than the main, just like the body fabric,
but it didn't work when I was attaching the zipper panel, so I kept everything the same length.
So these straps. I cut ones that are 15 inch long but I do think that it would have been better if
it was a few inches longer, and if it was wider towards the tip. If you look at the original bag,
you'll see that it's a point that I missed when I was trying to replicate it. Getting a big dramatic
bow would have been just right, so this is an important detail that I missed, and unfortunately
I didn't buy enough fabric, so I couldn't redo the straps. Sew the right sides together and turn
inside out. I also couldn't find zippers that were in the same color, so I bought zipper by the yard
for the first time ever, and it turned out okay. I bought a size 5 zipper and then cut it to length
of 13 inches. Then place a zipper on top of the lining, pinning it to place. And then main fabric
also right side up before stitching down. Honestly I can't I still can't quite wrap my head around
how this works but it does. Repeat on the other side and press the fabric away from the zipper,
then top stitch on either side of the zipper and that's your zipper panel. Then
attach the straps of the bag to the ends of the zipper. I didn't add a zipper stop to this and
stitched down the straps over the zipper to stop both sides. The instructions I found online had
the zippers actually shorter than the zipper panel but I think if I kept it as the same length of 14
inches across the board, I think it would have ended up better. So I think this is where things
get tricky. This is where it gets confusing, when you're combining the lining with the zipper. I'd
say that's pretty good. Now place the panel to the lining all right sides facing up, attaching the
short ends first. I double stitched this because I found that the lining was very flimsy. I would
recommend finding better fabric for your lining. I've had this in lots of bags that I bought in the
past where the lining would tear, and you'd have a hole and a lot of your stuff ends up getting lost,
and having things lost inside your purse is one thing, but having things lost inside your purse as
well as lost inside the lining is another. Another magical moment here, where sewing really proves to
be like this mind bending puzzle, clip the right side of the zipper panel to the body of the bag,
pleating the remainder of the fabric along the way to fit the length of the panel.
Make sure you match the side seams to the straps and stitch all around.
I found it best to stitch down the length first, then stitching new down the straps.
Turn everything inside out. We're not quite done yet, but we're almost there.
Finish the lining. I was able to turn it inside out and stitch it down until the last two inches,
which was then hand stitched closed.
So this is my solution for the straps that are way too short, and since if you're tying a knot you're
losing length in the straps, I decided to create a faux knot. Taking a 5 by 7 inch piece of scrap,
fold in half and stitch down the length then turn inside out and press with the seam in the middle.
Wrap around the straps in a position that you're happy with,
tucking in the raw edges into each other before hand stitching to the straps.
So this was not the easiest first attempt at making a bag ever,
but I would say that the pleats allow you a bit of an excuse to have more of an organic shape.
The contrasting lining is really my way of adding my personality to the bag,
and it really ended up being a great dumpling shape, and this can double as a travel pillow.
Thank you to dirty labs for sponsoring this video. You can use my code LETITIAKIU for 15 off new
customers. One bottle does 75 loads, and I love their signature scents for washing my sheets. Find
me on all social and tag me @letitiakiu if you recreate any of my diys. I'll see you next time!