I fell in love with a bag kit from Walmart of all places, it had beautiful damask in hot pink and pink polka dot fabric with a pretty handle. When I took it home, the instructions were ridiculously confusing, so I just took a gander at the pattern for five seconds and winged it! What lies below is my tutorial for this bag, sketched out and explained to the best of my ability. I like bag tutorials without too many measurements, because I like to grasp a concept of how to make something, then be able to make it in any size I'd like to. You can use this pattern to make a bag for a doll, or a giant tote and how you do it will always remain the same, you just tweak the size a bit! It is a great bag for beginners but I'm not so sure about my tutorial making skills, so drop me a line if you have any issues!
The photo above shows the bag after many washings and uses over its lifespan of 2 years. I never ironed it as I should have so it has lost some of its beauty, but it is a better quality photo than what I have below...
This is the bag right after it was completed, which shows how nice the pleating once looked before a trillion washings. I wish I had taken a better photograph of it back then!
1) Cut out two of these shapes in any size you would like (your actual bag will be about an inch thinner in every direction, once sewn together, keep that in mind; I did 16"w x 18"tall) from the material that will be the outside of your bag. You can make a pattern by folding a square (or rectangle if you want your bag longer than it is wide or vice versa) piece of newspaper/tissue paper, in half and then round off the bottom corners. If you want a very tapered bag (small at the top and very wide at the bottom) you can slope the sides a lot (keep in mind the pleating at the top will make the top even slimmer) or just a bit as I did in the photo above.
2) Iron interfacing (I used heavy for a very sturdy bag) onto the back sides of your two pieces following the directions on your interfacing. Don't let this stuff intimidate you, all you do is iron it on, it is super cheap, and it makes your bags look more professional and sturdier.
3. Pleat the top of your bag where indicated in the above drawing. Simply pinch the fabric and then lay what you have pinched down to either the right or left.
Sidenote: The example I showed you makes the middle portion of the bag recede by laying your pinched fabric down to the right for the left pleat, and left for the right pleat, but you can do this the opposite way for a middle panel that seems to lay on top of the side portions.
. Just play with it until you like it then iron it down (optional) and sew a straight seam 1/4" from the top of the bag, all along the top, locking in your pleating.
4. Lay your pleated pieces down on the fabric you want to use for the lining, using them as a pattern to cut two lining pieces. We did this now instead of the beginning because once we pleated the pieces, the top became less wide.
5. Sew your two pleated outer pieces together, right sides facing each other. Do NOT sew the top closed, obviously. Do the same for your lining, leaving a 4"-5" opening at the bottom as indicated above. You will use this opening to pull the bag inside out in a minute after the lining/outer pieces are attached to one another. Just make sure you back-stitch on either side of the opening to lock your stitches into place.
6. Iron interfacing on to fabric you want to use for the straps, then cut out 8 rectangles (I pointed the ends of mine a bit) that are about 10" long (longer or shorter if you'd like) by 2-2 1/2" wide. Sew them right-sides together then turn right-side out. I use the back side of a paintbrush to get the point turned out neatly. Just fold over the open top as much as you can, then place your index finger inside, and use your index finger and thumb to roll it rightside out. Iron the pieces flat and set aside.
7. Now you are going to make rings from either bias tape, ribbon, or coordinating/matching fabric. The pieces you just made in step 6 (the straps) will loop through the rings on your purse handles, then back through this little loop, so it needs to be tight enough to kind of squish the straps for a neat pleated effect. I made mine from 3.5" rectangles that were about 1" wide. Make 4. You can skip this step and just tie bows!
Making sure your outer-fabric bag is turned right-side-out (pattern side out), place it INSIDE of your lining bag (which should be WRONG-side out or inside-out) placing all four of your straps so that they are sandwiched between the outer bag and the lining bag. Pin everything into place.
The first picture shows the outer bag sticking up out of the lining bag to give you an idea of what is going on inside, and you get an angled ariel view to the right of it because I was feeling frisky 'n generous. But the bottom picture should be all you see once everything is pinned—just pins and the wrong side of your lining—unless you let the straps poke out a bit which is fine. So to wrap that up: stick the outer bag into the lining bag, place the straps in between, pin, and then sew around the top TWICE for security, back stitching to lock your stitches.
The needle should be going through the lining, the outer bag, and the straps. If this sounds super confusing and seems wrong, read the next step and you'll be all, "OH! Okay, I totally get it now! and even then, you'll have to visualize the process after you pinned it all together to make sure you did it right. It took years for me to just trust and do it!
9. (aka "the step that makes number 8 mildly palatable") Okay, so now start to pull your outer bag through the hole you left open at the bottom of your lining bag ("OH! That's what that was for... I thought it was a super secret pocket.") and keep pulling until it is all out and the lining bag is right-side out. Your straps should be pokin' out like in the second photo (next to the one in which I decided to be 5 years old). Sew up that hole by folding in the excess fabric and sewing it together, then stuff the lining into your outer bag to make everything look "normal".
This show's the pleating hidden by the ring you created.
10. Slide the rings you made down onto the straps, then slide the ring from your handle onto the strap. Fold the strap down and sew it onto itself a few times (I did three rows) or with a zig-zag for stability, then slide the ring you made up on top of the stitches to conceal them. Make sure the seam from your ring is on the backside so it isn't seen, and use a little Fabri-Tac (best fabric glue ever!) to keep your fabric ring in place over the stitches.
I pleated mine first by folding it like an accordion across where I had sewn, gluing in between those folds, then sliding my ring up to keep it in place.
You're Done!
I added the monogram with my Silhouette SD and some heat transfer vinyl. The handles I got at Walmart in a purse making kit that had awful instructions but you can get them at most craft and sewing stores, or off of old purses at thrift stores! Also consider just hemming a tube of fabric and tying it to your straps. Since you essentially make a loop out of the straps you could loop anything through (rope, chain, whatever).
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