Bonus Projects

Picture
Little Vintage Purse
This little purse was inspired by illustrations of chic handbags I kept seeing on the front of dress patterns from the 1950s and 60s. It seems every woman wearing a cinch-waist dress has a strappy little purse like this on her arm! Use a funky, retro-inspired print (like these mod dots) to really make it pop.

What You Need
  • 3/8-yard of fabric for outside. (You can probably also squeeze it out of a fat quarter—the handle could wind up a little bit shorter though.)
  • 1/3-yard fabric for lining (I like to use a coordinating fabric)
  • 1/3-yard of fusible fleece
  • 7-inch zipper
  • Downloaded pattern piece template

What to Cut
From template:
  •  Cut 2 on fold from purse fabric
  •  Cut 2 on fold from lining fabric
  •  Cut 2 on fold from fusible fleece. Before you cut from fleece, fold the top of the template down 1-1/2 inches, so your fleece piece winds up 1- 1/2 inches shorter.
  •  Cut 1 piece, 4 inches x 22 inches, from purse fabric (for handle)
  •  Cut 1 piece, 1 inch x 20 inches, from fusible fleece (for stabilizing the handle)

How to Assemble

Zipper
  1. Open out all folded pieces.
  2. Pin purse together at top and machine baste the seam 5/8-inch; press seam open.
  3. Center closed zipper face down over wrong side of seam; pin first and then hand-baste in place. Remove pins. See my zipper tutorial [link] for more hints on putting in a zipper.
  4. Using a zipper foot on your machine, stitch zipper in place, on the RIGHT side of the fabric, about 1/8” away from seam (or just clearing the zipper teeth).
  5. Rip out all basting. Make sure your zipper works.

Purse body
  1. Fuse one piece of fleece to purse front piece, and then fuse the other to purse back piece. Make sure to fuse on the WRONG side of the fabric. Also, remember, your fleece is 1-1/2 inches shorter than the original purse piece, so it won’t extend all the way to the top (it should stop just below the zipper seam).
  2. Open your zipper about halfway (enough to leave an opening for turning).
  3. With right sides together (fleece sides facing you), pin the purse together around the sides and bottom.
  4. Stitch sides and bottom (do a 1/4-inch seam here), pivoting around the bottom; trim anything that can be trimmed.
  5. Turn right-side-out and gently push out corners.

Lining
  1. Pin lining pieces together at sides and bottom (leave top open). Stitch (using 1/4-inch seam allowance), but stop stitching 1-inch from the top on each side.
  2. With wrong side still facing you, take that 1-inch of unused seam allowance at the top and press it down.
  3. Trim side seams to 1/8-inch, but don’t turn lining.
  4. Insert lining into bag. Push the lining into the corners and line up the seams.
  5. Use the top folded edge of the lining to cover the zipper seam, so you have a nice finished edge. Pin folded edge to zipper take, making sure there is enough clearance for the zipper to open and close.
  6. Slip-stitch the lining over the zipper tape.
  7. Slip-stitch any raw edges on the sides that peeked through when you turned the bag.

Handle
  1. With wrong side of handle piece facing you, press short ends under 1/4-inch.
  2. Press long sides under 1/2-inch. Now you have one big piece with all ends pressed and no raw edges.
  3. Still on the wrong side, place strip of fleece near edge of one side and fold over; iron to fuse and then top-stitch the whole handle piece together at the folded edges (pivoting around corners).
  4. Attach to purse sides by hand.


          
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Barnes and Noble