The Girl-y, Summer-y Bag (or How to Sew in Round Handles)

 

 

Requirements for making this bag:

• the ability to draw a straight line (good relationship with ruler a necessity)
• the ability to sew in a straight line
• the ability to iron in a straight line
• the ability to summon the patience to go s-l-o-o-w(need plenty of this for sewing in round handles neatly).

 

 

 

 

 

Materials

• bag exterior: 1 rectangular piece of light to medium weight fabric 70 cm x 70 cm
• bag lining: 1 rectangular piece of light to medium weight fabric 60 cm x 60 cm
• interfacing: lightweight, sew-in or fusible (this is optional depending on how floppy you want the bag to look)  60 cm x 60 cm
• interfacing scraps (fusible) : enough to make 4 squares which are 2 cm x 2 cm
• ribbon: 1.5 cm wide  and 2.5m long  (grosgrain or velvet are probably best; they have some body and crease less easily than satin)
• 1 pair 18 cm round handles (I used pretend bamboo)
• fabric marking pencil
• ruler for marking fabric

Ready? (This bag involves far more getting ready to stitch than actual stitching).

Step 1 - mark the fabric, position the interfacing squares & cut a little bit more

• Place the fabric for the exterior right side up on a flat surface.
• Draw a line on the fabric parallel to one side of the fabric square and 3 cm in from the edge. Draw a second line 5 cm in from the edge. Repeat for the opposite side.
• Measure 5 cm from one of the remaining (unmarked) sides and draw a line. Repeat for the opposite side.
• At each corner of the fabric, mark and cut out a 5 cm x 3 cm rectangle. Figure 1 below.
• Draw a mark 2 cm in from each of the sides of the cut-out  rectangles, extending these lines past the end of the rectangle to that they intersect. Stitch along these lines (stay-stitch), pivoting at the intersection. See Figure 2 below.
• Fuse the 2 cm x 2 cm interfacing squares. See Figure 1 and Figure 2 below to see how to position the squares because this simple little step is really hard to describe!
• Make a diagonal clip from the corner of the rectangle through the interfacing to the stay-stitching - just to the stitching - being careful not to cut through the stitches. 

 

Figure 1.

I couldn't get the detail I wanted on the exterior piece fully opened out, so I folded it into quarters to show how each corner should look with the markings and the corner rectangles cut out. The square green blob is where the interfacing should be fused in place.

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 2 - Press and stitch - fininshing of rectangle edges

• See Figure 3 below for directions on how to fold, press and finish the edges of the cut-out rectangles.
• Prepare all 4 corners of the exterior the same way.

 

Figure 3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3: Fold some more, press some more, fold and press, press and fold!

• Find one of the edges where you have drawn a line at 3 cm and one at 5. This edge will form one of the casings for the ribbon. Turn under a 1 cm hem and press again so the fold has a sharp crease.
• Do the same on the opposite edge.
• Place the exterior of the bag wrong side up on your table.
• Place the lining right side up so that the outer edges of the lining are aligned with the 5 cm marks you made on the exterior fabric. At each corner, fold the lining under as in Figure 4 below. Pin with enough pins to ensure that the lining doesn't slip. (You could baste the lining in place with large running stitches which you remove later. This would actually be the proper way to do it. I am going to use a plethora of pins instead!
• Turn under the edges (same edges where you just made the 1 cm hem) again so that there is a 2 cm hem.

 

Figure 4.

Lining in position, 1 cm hem turned under, and you can see  where  I have also pressed the second fold, but have turned it back out again for in the photo.

Figure 5.

Edge stitching the ribbon casing. This also partially covers up the corner where the lining bit was turned under. When the casing for the handle is made, the remainder will be covered.

 

 

Step 4 - Insert the handles.

The remaining unfinished sides will need to be prepared to form the casing into which you will sew the handles:

• On each of the remaining edges, fold under a .5 cm hem and press it in place. This is where I almost always burn myself with the steam from the iron - such a narrow hem requires folding and holding into place very close to the iron and I always seem to steam my fingers along with the fabric. So please be careful!
• Fold one more time so that the hem is 2.5 cm deep. At this point, draw a line where the folded over hem sits on top of the lining. This is most important - this will be the guide to sewing down the edge of the handle casing neatly and evenly.

Inserting the handle involves positioning it inside the casing and then edge stitching the casing in place. The trouble is this: the line of stitching has to be straight i.e. parallel to the edge of the fabric. The handle is round. Oh-oh.

Thus, now begins the Patience-Required bit:

• You'll need to place one of the circular handles inside the fold that you just pressed into place. But you also have to position the handle where it won't "bump into" the machine side. My machine is not wide enough for a handle of this diameter to lie entirely to the right of the needle. There simply isn't room. So I have to put the handle under the pressure foot so that I am sewing on the inside of the circle. But, the handle is too "fat" to fit under the raised presser foot. So I had to remove the needle, remove the presser foot, slide the handle under, then replace everything and re-thread the machine. But finally I was ready to go - Figure 6 shows the state of affairs after I had sewn about 3 inches of the casing:

Figure 6.

Sewing on the inside of the circular handle. I have used my zipper foot because it is the narrowest one I have and won't bump into the handle quite so often as I sew. You can barely see the marked line that I am lining the casing edge up against. You will be able to see this better in the next photo.

(Observe: the next thing that is going to happen is that the black screw which holds the needle in place is going to hit the handle and I will not be able to sew further).

 

• You will only be able to sew about 5 - 10 cms at a time. When you begin to sew, back-stitch well so that the stitches will be well-anchored. Sew until it does not feel comfortable any more - until you are experiencing drag from the handle, or until you bump into the handle. When you stop sewing, make sure your machine needle is in the down position. It is important to sew slowly and line up those stitches neatly with the edge of the fold.
• Lift the feed on your machine. Adjust fabric and handle so that you are clearing another bit which you can flatten out and sew down. Use the marking on the fabric to make sure that the folded bit is staying where it should be. Again - once you again get to a point where you are not going to be able to sew well, make sure that needle is in the down position, and reposition everything as you did before.

Figure 7.

The guideline for positioning the casing is more easily seen here. The needle is down and I have stopped sewing so that I can push the handle (just visible under the fabric) slightly up and slightly to the right - then I can continue to sew without the black screw hitting the handle and stopping me abruptly!

Keep sewing, stopping, repositioning - repeating as often as you need to. The secret is to go slow, and to ensure that the the needle is in the down position whenever you need to stop sewing. It is also helpful if you keep the casing that you have already sewn from wandering to the other side of the handle as it seems to want to do. Each time you stop and reposition, move the sewn casing back towards the needle.

About the time that you feel like you would like to be playing tennis rather than bag making, you will come to the end of the casing, and the first handle will be inserted. Then, all you have to do is get this one off your machine, and do this all over again for the second (last!)handle.... ;o)

Step 5 - Finish line! Insert and tie the ribbons -  easy-peasy.

• Thread the ribbons through the ribbon casings. You can do this more easily if you have one of those little gadgets - bodkins - meant for the job. if not, then pin a safety pin onto the ribbon and use this to guide the ribbon through.
• Hold both ends of the ribbon and gather the bag along the ribbon until it looks like the photo. Unless you want to be constantly tying these ribbons, tie a reef knot - left over right and under, right over left and under. Once this is firmly knotted, make a pretty bow on top of the reef knot.
• Repeat for the other side.

 

 

Figure 8.

And - you're done!

 

 

Comments

[Kyoko]

Thank you very much for such a wonderful and thorough tutorial. I have made a very similar bag before but step 1 and 2 are brand-new techniques for me! I totally understand how difficult it is to do the bamboo handle part. But your bag is so professionally done and looks wonderful. It has really made me want to make these bags!!

[Jo]

Great tutorial! I've never managed to sit down and figure this out and now I don't have to :)

[oge]

really clear instructions. well done. This is now on my to do list ;-)

[Judy]

Thanks Kyoko, Jo and Oge. Good luck with your bags. I have a thought that I might make a "girl-y winter-y" bag, too: I have a remnant of brown tweed and I thought this would look pretty with some brown velvet ribbon. ;o)

[Lisette]

thanks alot for that - the most straight-forward and simply-explained example of how to do the circular handles! very handy pics - it's so much easier to understand with images. will have to work on my patience - have 8 circular handles on order.