Today’s awesome project is fantastic for both the sewers and the quilters out there
because we’re using pre cuts to make a cool folded fabric bag. Let’s get started.
That’s right, I’m using a 2 ½ pre cut strip. This is from Riley Blake, super cute
fabric. It’s called Road Trip. I absolutely love it. And as I unpacked that 2 ½ strip
roll I basically just broke it into color families. And you can see by my bag sample
here, I’ve used the red for the handle. You’ll need four strips for that. I’ve
used the trim piece as red and you’ll need two of those. And then I’ve used it for
some of side trim as well. For the rest of the body I’ve just used the blue and the
green and the cream. And we are, like I said, going to fold these and stitch them together
to make the body which is really fantastic for bags because it’s really heavy and thick.
I won’t say it’s comparable to upholstery fabric but I’ll say it’s pretty darn close.
And it’s actually four layers thick and there’s zig zag joined on the butt end.
But we’ve got a lot of work to do in today’s video so let’s get right into the pressing.
That’s the first step. And I would like you to take just a little bit of time and
press out all of your strips at once. It makes the management of the project so much easier,
right?
So for the pressing we’re going to start with our fabric face down on our ironing surface.
And then I’m going to just basically make myself a center line. And I’m doing that
by coming up here and I’m setting my iron. And I’m just kind of using my thumb and
my finger to just look at this edge right here to make sure they’re lining up nice.
Based on the way this bag is constructed, doing a good job is important. Doing a perfect
job is not. I don’t know that we would ever see anywhere in our sewing if this was not
perfectly 1 ½ or excuse my 1 ¼ all the way through. So what we’re going to do is we’re
just going to finish pressing from one end to the next, setting that center, ok? And
now that center is simply a guideline. And I do have some nice steam in my iron right
now because it helps everything set. Now I’m going to open this back up. I also learned
when I’m working, a lot of times when I’m working this way versus at you and the camera.
So the next thing I want to do is I’m going to bring the top down to the center line.
That way I’m not ironing over it later and causing a problem, versus starting with the
bottom. So now I’m just folding that top down. And what I found with my iron, especially
this wonderful cordless is I could do the center seam and I could do one entire top
seam without returning to my base, except for I need both hands. And then I let it heat
up really good because after I finish this, guess what I’m going to do? That’s right,
I’m going to fold the other edge, this edge right here back up to the center mark. So
that we’re giving no raw edges when we’re done with our strips, ok? So that’s going
to then basically come down here. Then the final trick, of course I want you to let your
irons heat up a little bit longer. But I’ve got one done that I’m going to be able to
show you. I came in here and started to set it. Let that get really nice and oh that steam
is wonderful. That’s right. Ok and then once that’s set then I want you to fold
it over for the last. And because I want you to press all of your strips, all 42 of those
strips just like this, every piece needs to be done just like this. I want you to spend
a lot of time pressing this final crease so that it doesn’t try to open up for you.
And as you can see I’ve been traveling around with this one here. And it’s perfectly pressed
and ready to be used as I begin the construction of my strips together, right? And so by taking
that time to get that last crease, they won’t shift around on you.
Now all of your strips have been made just like that. And we want to join them together
and we’re going to use a zig zag. I have my machine set up with a four millimeter wide,
right? So four wide and 1 ½ long so not a real long stitch. I’m going to use my four
red strips to build the handle. That’s what we need to do still for the bag. I’m going
to use this striped one though so you can see a little bit better with the camera. The
very first seam you do is going to be different than the other seams. So what I want to show
you here is I’ve got the opening this way. And then I have the opening here this way.
These are going to lay right next to each other. They’re not going to go on top of
each other. This is a butt edge seam. So they’re sitting right next to each other. And now
I’m just going to zig zag across using the opening of my presser foot right on top of
that seam. So it’s going to be traveling down just like that. And I’m going to be
able to zig zag across those two pieces. Now the reason I do it that way on just my first
seam is that means that after I’m done I will no longer have any raw edges. And I can
actually add strips to either side.
As we get ready to join these two strips together I’m just going to remind you that you have
your opening here. And you also have your opening here. And that way when we sew these
together we have no more raw edges at all. My eye is going to look at this gap between
the two. I’m going to push them close. And I’m going to zig zag using that four millimeter
zig zag over that gap right there. And I’m going to get myself off to a nice little start.
And then once we’re sewing let’s talk about a couple of things. So yes just eyeballing
the two fabrics coming together. Now a lot of you might be concerned that with this length
of fabric or with this kind of sewing that you might be getting a lot of bulk or some
travel in your strips, meaning that while you’re sewing together that you might get
a bunch of ripple in that body of fabric. So you can sew from one end up and then down
the other. I did that on one of my samples and that worked very nicely. You can also
line them all up from the selvedge side. But what I really found out helps the most is
it’s how you’re handling the fabrics over here. So I have a little lightweight hold
up in the air that’s keeping the weight down. But I also have my left hand here applying
just a little bit of pressure. But I’m applying even pressure to both strips of fabric here
with my left hand. And that should help me come pretty much the same length of distance
at the end. And then I’ll show you when I get there the next trick. Ok so we’re
almost to the end here. And I’ve kept even pressure. Now the point I want to point out
is when you get down to this end if one of these tails was a lot longer than the other
I don’t want you to try to even them up. We do not need them even down there. We’re
going to trim all that off as a matter of fact before we put the top trim on. So I want
to just leave it be. Don’t force it because that’s where you’ll start to get ripple
and pucker. Now if you notice a bunch of ripple and pucker early on, of course you’d want
to correct that. But at this point just leave it be, sew right off of the edge. You don’t
even need to backstitch, right? And we’re just going to lift that up and out. And then
from this point here there’s nothing we need to press or anything. We’re basically
done. And I just want to point here I have a finished edge on both sides. So now as I
begin adding my seams another trick to help prevent that ripple or pucker in the texture,
you could put a strip on this side and a strip on this side if you were not at all concerned
about your color management. For me, I’m going to go ahead and just add another piece
and another piece to make the four strips for the handle and I’ll be right back to
show you how to build the rest of the bag.
Hey welcome back. Now check this out. I said I would have all four strips put together
for my handle. And then I did all of that I used about 32 pieces for the body of the
bag. So it’s time to construct this. And all we really, really need to do to begin
with is I’m just going to fold it in half. There isn’t a right or wrong side. I forgot
to point out that’s the whole trick to this wonderful bag is it’s completely reversible.
What I’m looking at right now when I come in is I want to make sure that I’m going
to make to the top here and I’m just going to eventually trim all of this off. So I’m
just making sure that all of my excess is at least evened up up there. I’m really
looking at this line here. And now what I’m going to try to do is I’m going to bring
this to the machine and I”m going to start at the bottom corner. I’m going to work
my way up. And I’m going to set this project and so that I am zigging, excuse me, move
my foot there. So I am going to be putting the needle down in the bag on both pieces.
And then I’m going to be doing the, the other side of the zig zag, the other leg of
the zig zag on the outside of the bag. So that it basically helps it flatten down a
little bit. If you have a topstitch finishing foot, that might be a good choice to use right
now or a blind hemming foot is also another nice choice if you have something like that.
But this works just fine this way if you don’t have those specialty feet. And we’re going
to do the same to both sides of the bag. And this builds it all out. And I’ll be right
back.
Alrighty, we are finishing the actual second side. Now we’ve got both sides completely
stitched up right? We’re solid in there. Now my original goal was that this would then
flatten out that seam by having the zig zag like that but it didn’t really work. So
now this is the inside of the bag. We’ll be doing the other work on the outside. So
next thing we want to do while this is fresh out of the machine. I’m just flattening
it down nice. I want to grab a nice big ruler. And I probably have my wonderful 45 millimeter
cutter back here. And then I”m just going to use a line on the outside of the bag to
make sure I’m square. And I’m going to make sure I cut off all these loose ends.
If you had a specific size bag you wanted to make this would be a great time to make
it that size. However I’m going to next show you the box corners so that will bring
the sides of the bag down a little bit, not a ton. And for my box corners, I’m going
to do about a four inch box corner. So watch what I’m doing. I’m bringing the bag here
and I’m going to start to put the seam section up in the top. And then I’m folding this
corner so that it starts to make a peak. And I’m not sure if you can see this in the
camera or not but this is that seam allowance that we just created. And then one of the
things that I like to do, I really like these wonderful littler rulers that have got a 45
degree marker on here. So with this 45 degree mark running this way, we need to go four
inches. So one, two, three, oops, there we go, four inches. This is going to make a very
large box corner there. And I’m going to draw a line with my sharpie marker. Remember
make sure you’re working on what will be the inside of your bag now. So I’m going
to draw this line with my sharpie all the way across there. And then before I do anything
else I’m just going to walk right back to my sewing machine.
Now you’re in a zig zag so I want you to go ahead take a moment and go back to your
regular straight stitch. Standard operating procedure there. Ok and I want to make sure
I’m dialed in for my straight stitch there. Now this would be a good one to go ahead and
backstitch on. You want to lock that in really good. And you’re just sewing right across
that sharpie pen mark, right across. Backstitch on that other end as well. And then I’d
like you to go ahead and leave this corner in place. I do not want you to cut it off
because that just adds nice strength and structure to the bag. We need to do the other side.
So I’m going to fold it around just the same. I’ll show you the marking. And then
once I do my actual stitching for it, I will come back and teach you how to put your trim
and handle right on the top of that bag. So we’re going to do the four inches here.
One, two, three, four up to the top. There’s my diagonal line. Here’s my sharpie marker.
I’m going to stitch it and I’ll see you here in a second.
Once you have both of your box corners done your next trick is going to be to add your
trim. Now remember we made the trim just like we made all of our other strips so it’s
got that fun double fold going on inside of it. And now with that trim all we have to
do is we’re going to go around the upper edge of our bag. So what I like is I like
to start by, let me see the easiest way to teach you this. If you look very closely I
have selvedges on both ends of the trim but you can only see one. That white one we don’t
want to use. This one we do want to use so when we finish it actually is our finished
edge and we can put that right on the top. So we’re going to leave this tail open.
I know this sounds a little bit bizarre but watch how we do it. So as I’m getting ready
to come to the bag, I’m going to make my start and stop right on one of those side
seams. It’s going to get buried under the handle anyways. We won’t even see it. But
what I want is I want you to run this covered or printed selvedge past that seam. And then
just bring this right in here. It’s going to sandwich that . And then we’re going
to come right over to our sewing machine and we’re just going to topstitch right along
this edge. I don’t want you to be so close though that you miss the bottom edge. We’re
going to do all of it in one step. And a lot of you will probably find that removing your
tool tray from your machine will get that free arm open and exposed which will make
your stitching much easier. And then I want to make sure that this trim piece is out of
my way where I can always make sure it is getting completely wrapped to encase that
top edge of our bag. And I’m going to set this down and I probably have a good ⅛ of
an inch from the edge of the trim from where my needle is hitting to make sure that I capture
the top and the bottom. I’m going to go really nice and slow around here. I’m watching
the trim with the edge of my foot. And then I can see that it’s looking perfect and
then I am going to jump into caffeinated mode here in a second and teach you how to finish
that edge.
Ok now we are almost back around and hopefully you’re sewing much slower than I am. And
you can see here that this is the tail piece that I want to make sure that I capture. So
I’m going to take this fabric right here and I’m going to cut a raw edge about a
half of an inch. And then I’m going to make sure that goes down first just like this.
And then that selvedge edge comes over the top of it to capture it. And I have basically
no loose, fraying edges, raw threads or anything. Now I’ve got a good pinch on it so nothing
moves. And here we go to finish. And this point you might want to have a stiletto or
something handy. One of the tricks is pushing that tip up in there far enough that it catches
it without puckering. Oh that’s beautiful. I love that finish. And that’s just going
to come right around there. Let’s do a couple backstitches to hold it because we don’t
want it to ever get away from us. And now we have the trim all the way around our bag.
It looks fantastic and our bag is basically no raw edges and completely reversible other
than those silly tabs on the box corner down there. So I guess it’s not totally reversible.
But it is certainly no raw edges. And now it’s time to go ahead and put our handles
on.
So the first thing I want to do with my handle, right? Is I’m going to come down here and
I better use my rotary cutter and ruler for this. I’m going to take and I’m going
to trim off, I’m going to trim off about, I don’t know a quarter inch of the sewing
part and all of the selvedge of that side. And I’m going to do the same over here on
this end to tidy it up. Remember there’s no front or back side to these pieces. But
what I’m going to be able to do now, because I still don’t want a raw edge, is I’m
going to fold this under as I approach the sewing machine. And with that folded under
the next thing I want to know is I’m going to mark down about six inches on my bag. And
I’m going to pin that in place. So what I really want to do is take my ruler. And
one of the ways I love to use these rulers is first I flip them over so I can read them.
And then I kind of put it in upside down. And then what I”m also going to do is I”m
going to use this center seam right there and that’s going to line up with the center
on my handles. And then all I really need to do is just fold this edge under and I don’t
know, maybe a quarter inch or so. And I’m going to come down to about where that six
inches is on my ruler, right? And then, let’s get the ruler out of the way and while I hold
that here I’m just going to grab myself a pin to slide that through there, although
I want to make sure I don’t put it through the other side of the bag as well because
that could get rough. And then that’s just going to help me hold it in place while I
come over to the sewing machine. And I still have the free arm all set up on the machine
too which should make it real easy to get this on. And that one little pin in there
just helps keep it all organized before we start sewing. Ok but now that I’m under
the machine I’m getting the pin out of the way especially because I put it in right the
way I’m going to sew. And I’m going to come up just about another ⅛ of an inch
or so from the bottom of that trim piece. I”ve got it all secured nicely. And I’m
going to go ahead and take a few stitches, and backstitch it to lock it. And I”m going
to come all the way across here and backstitch it to lock it again. Now what I like to do
is I’m going to actually come up to where the handle meets the top of the bag right
up in here. And I’m going to do the same stitching again right where it meets the trim.
And I’m just lining it up to make sure it looks nice. And here I’m actually going
to go and backstitch. Now this is where all the pressure on the handle is going to be,
ok? So I’m backstitching again. So one of the things I actually do is I cut thread and
I put in a whole new row of stitching about a quarter of an inch down from that first
one I just did. And I also backstitch on that one and backstitch at the end and cut that
thread. And I’ll go ahead and let you put your handle on the other side and you will
be all finished with your awesome folded fabric bag.
I want to point out, you’ve got a great loop right there where you could hang your
water bottle or keys or sunglasses holder or something like that from while you’re
out shopping and showing off the fact that you love being a sewer and a quilter and a
Man Sewing fan. So until next time we’ll see you right here at Man Sewing.