Saturday, August 22, 2009

A First: Sewing My Own Handbag

My family has enough to live well, and for that I am grateful! But let's just say that the budget in our household does not include enough money for me to purchase the handbag I want--a lovely leather bag made by fellow Etsian jennyndesign. So I set out to find a sewing pattern and the proper materials and here I go. There probably is a cheaper handbag out there, but I had several specific requirements. It couldn't fall apart. It had to be gray so that it could match both brown and black shoes but still be dark enough not to show dirt or dust. I got sick of shopping for something unique, so the idea of making one myself came up. I'm pretty good at sewing. Other Etsians make and sell them. I'm not going to start up a handbag shop anytime soon. But the "exterior panels" of handbag number 1. The pattern comes from Ali Foster Patterns. So here's what it's supposed to look like:
 
I chose different fabric, but by the same designer you see in the sample, Amy Butler. The outside looks like this so far:
What you can't see is that I have basted a "stiffening non-fusible interfacing" to the other side of the that piece. Here is a closeup of the fabulous covered button I made (and the button tab):
 And, of course, no sewing project of mine would be complete without some interference from Dinah, the lovely cat who loves to be at the center of everything!
She slept on the pieces I had carefully ironed and laid out on the piano bench all day long... but she's so cute! I was willing to re-iron. Those polka dots she's got her arm around are going to be the inside of the bag eventually!


That's all for today, I'm off to sew the two exterior pieces to the together and do some weird thing to the corners to "add shape."

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