My handbag-Tutorial

This is my tutorial for the handbags or tote bags shown here.
It's written also for the tutorial-contest from sewmamasew. I hope you'll enjoy! And I hope my english is not too difficult to understand ;-)


The required materials:
-about 3/4 yard fabric for the outside. Please take a heavier weight, maybe upholstery quality or home decoration fabric. (My two fabrics in the tutorial are from ikea).
-3/4 yard fabric for the lining, this can be also heavy weight or midweight (patchwork-fabric).
-interfacings:
For the upper piece take something that makes a good stiffness, mine is this, it feels a little bit like cardboard.
For the lower piece I use this iron-on volume fleece, a fusible volume fleece with 1/4 inch thickness.
-one keyring or D-Ring.
-one sew-in snap (1/2 inch diameter)
-some fabric glue

Cutting pieces:
All measures include a 3/8 inch seam allowance.

Upper bag-piece:

4 1/2 inch x 14 1/2 inch
cut two of the outer fabric, two of the lining fabric.
Cut two of the stiff interfacing but theses two about 3 1/2 x 13 1/2 inch! They must be smaller than the sewn piece, otherwise the fabric can't turn well in the seams.

Lower bag-piece:
13 inch x 19 inch
cut two of the outer fabric, two of the lining fabric and two of the volume fleece, theses two a little bit smaller for better ironing on (better for your iron-board...)

Shoulder Strap:
3 1/4 inch x 29 inch
Cut one of the outer fabric, one of the lining and one (a little bit smaller) of the volume fleece. You could also choose to make the shoulder strap on both sides of the outer fabric.

Inside pocket:
7 1/2 inch x 6 inch
cut out of lining fabric

Keyring-strap:
1 1/2 inch x 11 inch
cut out of lining fabric


Prepare the outer fabric:
Iron on all interfacings, set aside and let cool-down.

Prepare the lining:
Sew the inside pocket:
Fold over the longer side of the pocket piece twice 1/2 inch wide, iron and sew a seam in 3/8 distance to the edge. Iron the sewing allowance (3/8 inch) of the other sides to the middle, sew the pocket on one of the lower pieces in the middle of the upper long edge, in 1 inch distance to the edge. If desired make a pencil pocket by making an extra seam in 1 inch distance to one smaller side on the ready pocket.
Sew in the snap in the middle of the upper piece, in a bit smaller distance to the upper edge than to the lower. If you use midweight fabric, firm the fabric on this point with a small piece of interfacing.
With a bias-tape maker form a strap out of the keyring-strap piece (or sew the longer side of the piece, right sides together, turn round) and topstitch. Put aside.

Shoulder strap:
Sew the two shoulder-strap pieces right sides together ond turn round.
Iron carefully and topstitch on both sides. Set aside.

Making the folds in the lower pieces:
Mark four points on each side of the upper (longer) edge of the lower bag-pieces.
Go from the shorter cutting edge to the middle, in 2 inch distance to the edge is point 1, go 1 1/4 inch further to point 2, go 2 inch further to point 3 and 1 inch further to point 4.
Mark these 4 points on all pieces. Now look on the right side of the pieces, make the folds by folding point 1 on point 2 and point 3 on point 4. The folds must show to the middle as shown on the photo(-at this point of writing my tutorial I discovered making a mistake at the folds- only the left side of the front piece on the photo is correct!) Fix with a pin.

Sew all upper pieces on the lower pieces, be sure to make a spare between the stiff interfacing of the upper piece and the seam!

Iron the seam allowances to the upper piece and topstitch. (Topstitching at this point is easier, the finished bag is very balky to handle because of the stiff interfacings.)

Sew the outside pieces together, right sides on each other.
Sew the lining pieces together, leave a 10 inch spare open in the bottom for turning the bag.

Sew the corners:
Fold all bottom corners together seam on seam (right side to right side), press seams apart. For finding the right position measure like shown on the photo, the seam must be in the middle.
Now measure a point 2 1/2 inch from the sewn corner, mark on both sides and sew a slight rounding from point to point.
Repeat on the other corners and trim it.
Now please turn the outer bag, sorry, it is a bit delicate.

Put the "two bags" together:
Put the shoulder strap on the outside bag, the joining seams of the upper piece must be in the middle of the strip, the strap must show down, the seam allowances show in the same direction! Fix with some stitches on the seam allowance.

In the middle of one strap-end fix both ends of the keyringstrap in the same way, the ring is already on the strap.
The lining-bag is wrong-side out, pull it over the outside-bag (which is right side-out) and stitch the upper edge. Be careful not to come in small distance to the firm interfacing.
Turn the lining bag in the outside bag, topstitch the edge. Arrange the lining in good position inside and topstitch the side-seam on both sides like shown on the photo.
Look through the spare in the lining and fix the lining around the snap-closure area with some fabric glue on the outerfabric (inside the two bags).
Close the spare in the lining.

Fill your bag with all what you need and go, making friends jealous!!