Swoon

Useful Handbag Hacks

~ Michelle ~ 13 Comments

Do you ever want to make a handbag and the pattern looks great, but it just doesn’t have all the features you want? That’s how I’ve been feeling.

Here’s my first Raspberry Ripple handbag. I love the outside of this, but I didn’t love the inside. A zipper on one side and a couple of side pockets. It’s adequate, but not exactly what I want.

Common Patterns

I’ve been looking at a lot of patterns, and too many of them are totes. I don’t love totes. They’re fine as a tote, to throw a few books in when heading to the library, but they’re not a handbag.

Most of the patterns I have, or have seen are all missing one thing I really want in a handbag – a divider inside. I love a divided handbag. I like to put things like my sunglasses on one side, my wallet in the zippered divider pocket, and any cosmetic things like hand cream or lip balm on the other side. Nice and neat – not all thrown in on the bottom. I also like a top zipper closure to secure it all.

So, I haven’t found my perfect patterns out there. After a little searching around, it seems I’m not alone. A few bloggers have posted some hacks that look really good and I wanted to share them with you.

Purse Dividers

This first one was referred to me by Marsha (Seam of my Pants). Thanks, Marsha! Sherri at Thread Riding Hood has a free pattern (for a tote) and tutorial on how to install a divider.  I’m using a photo from Sherri’s blog post to show you just how nice it looks.

That is so lovely and such a neat-looking finish. I love her fabric choice too.

This next one came from a search and it looks really good too. On the photo it says it’s from Diedel Bug. It’s on the Swoon website. It’s adding an interior divider pocket to the Eleanor handbag. This is a great-looking tutorial, and exactly what I’m wanting. Again, I’m using the photo from the website.

This is great! It even has the zipper in the divider just like I’m wanting.

Here is one more divider tutorial for you.

This photo is from Abby at Things For Boys*, and it’s a divider for a tote bag.

These are all great tutorials, and I’ll go through them all before I draft a divider for my next Raspberry Ripple handbag.

Zipper Closures

There’s one more thing that will make my Raspberry Ripple, and so many of the other bag patterns I have, my perfect handbag – a zipper closure at the top.

Here’s one more great tutorial on how to add a zipper closure.

This one is from Lisa at Andrie Designs. And it’s for a tote!

With all these tutorials, I feel ready to make all the changes I want to make to my Raspberry Ripple pattern.

Happy creating!

Coraline Clutch

~ Michelle

Oh, I think I love bag-making as much as I love bra-making. I made another Swoon. I must say, I love it. I used it the same day I finished it, and was so happy with it. Here’s my Coraline Clutch shown with the pattern.

with-pattern

I made this out of the same fabric I used to make my Agnes-inspired skirt, and the temporary dog boots. (I told you you’d see more of this, but I think I’m pretty much done with the material now.) This is a thick flocked knit. I really do love this material. I have a little more in black. I also have a similar black flocked stretch denim. So many things to sew still!

Back to Coraline. Here’s the inside of the bag.

Inside

The pattern is a great pattern, and it all comes together easily. Swoon has a Facebook group for support, and that group lists a bunch of files. One of those files is a video tutorial that I used to help me make this bag – just to make sure I was doing everything right.

I added a fun little bracelet charm to the zipper to give it a little more oomph, and to make it easier to pull that little zipper.

zipper-pull

Here’s the backside of the zipper pull:

back-of-zip-pull

I love that it is two-sided. Regardless of which way it shows, it looks pretty.

I worked to pattern-match the fabric so I’d have the same pattern showing on both the front and the back. I could have done a tiny bit better with my pinning because I noticed the bottom seam doesn’t match perfectly, but I’m pretty pleased with it overall. Most of the time I won’t be looking at it from the bottom, so the sides match well. There’s always something to work on for the next project, isn’t there?

pattern-matching

One change I made to the pattern was to simply attach my strap into the bag’s seam. The pattern calls for a 1″ D-ring and a 1″ swivel clip. I didn’t have those on hand, and didn’t have time to run to any store. I made this up, showered, and went out to a banquet. I love it as is, but also think I’d love to see it with the D-ring. I have another planned already.

Here’s my new Coraline with Catherine, just to show you the size.

On-Catherine-with-new-drape

Catherine is draped in some lovely fabrics that I’m hoping will make it into a holiday skirt.

Happy creating and have a very Merry Christmas!

Swoon Ethel

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

After making the Conference Tote Bag, I thought I’d like to make more bags. I’ve read a few books, bought a book, reviewed a book, am planning on buying a new book coming out, and took a few Craftsy classes – all on bag-making. I thought it was time to try another bag.

Let me tell you, it’s a lot more of a workout to make a bag than it is to make a bra! I can’t think of a anything that you fight with as much on a bra. The only thing that would come close is stretching the elastic along the band, but that’s nothing. Now, having said that, there are no fitting issues with bags at all.

Before I go on about the fight I had making the bag, let me show you what I made.

Bag-on-Catherine

This is Ethel, a free pattern from Swoon. I love the shape of this bag – that’s what drew me to it in the first place. It’s just a bit different for a tote bag with its tear-drop shape. DS2 came home the day I’d made it and said it was beautiful and what he really liked was the shape too. So, it’s a winning shape.

It doesn’t show up really well in the photos, but there is an outer divided pocket on the front of the bag. That’s something great for phones or keys or lipstick that you don’t want lost in the bag.

I used the same quilting cotton for the lining on this bag as I did on my Conference Tote Bag.

lining

Here’s the outside of Ethel with just a bit of lining showing. I love how these go together.

bag-front-and-inside

You can see that front pocket I mentioned a little better in the above photo.

And here’s the back of the bag.

bag-back

Oh, I love that shape. I’d like to make this again and include a few of the lovely details from the Conference tote – like an inside pocket with zipper, and a zipper closure.

Speaking of detail, here’s a close-up of the floral detail:

detail

I love the gold on there, and the contrast between the dark brown and white.

Now, let me tell you about the fight we had. Well, the bag has interfacing and/or foam on all the pieces to give it structure. I did fight a little bit with the Conference Tote Bag – I’d decided boxed corners and I were not going to be friends. On this bag there are no boxed corners. However, the whole time I was sewing the seams, the foam seemed to want to push against something and I felt like I was fighting to keep my seam allowances straight. Tell me, any other bag-makers out there, is that normal? It felt like an arm workout that lasted too long.

The second fight is leaving that little six-inch gap in the lining to pull the whole bag through! I’ve read different comments where bag-makers have referred to that as birthing the bag. To me, it seemed more like I was trying to rip apart what I’d just fought to sew! Again, it was an arm work out too. Once the bag is turned though, well, that’s when you can see how it’s going to look when it’s finished. There’s just a little bit more sewing and some pressing to do, but the finished look is there. It’s a great moment.

In the end, I’m very pleased with it. This will be making its way to my Mum for Christmas this year. I had a lot of hints and questions after the first bag I made – I knew my Mum would love one too.

Happy creating!