Tutorial Tuesday - Child's Purse

Eden loves bags and purses and such. I thought this fabric would make a cute one (it is leftover from the diaper changing pad).

What do you think?

Materials:

• Sturdy fabric (I used canvas) 16" x 12"
• Decorative fabric (I just used this cute lady bug cotton) 12" x 12"
• Scissors
• Thread
• Strong Ribbon (for handles)
• Measuring tool (ruler or tape or whatever)
• Pins
• Velcro or other fastener (optional)
  

First of all, cut out your fabric. The black is 16" x 12" and the lady bug fabric is 12" x 12" (in order to make the lady bugs right side up on both sides of the purse I cut two pieces and then stitched them together as seen below - if you have a pattern that doesn't have a right side up you can just cut one piece of fabric):

Fold each piece in half and iron:
The crease will be your sewing line:
Fold both pieces of fabric the other direction and iron again:
Hem your top fabric (my lady bugs) on both the top and bottom (but not sides).

Line up your folds so that the larger piece (my black) is underneath right side up and the designer fabric (lady bugs) is on top also right side up. Pin along the creases and then sew:
I used a zig zag to sew my seams:
Now, put right sides together (your fabric has become one piece now) and sew the two sides. You just created a bag with front and back pockets.

Turn the (black) fabric inside and sew around it (creating a hem for the top of your purse).
Turn the bag inside out and take the bottom points and match the bottom seam with the side seam so it forms a triangle like this:
Sew a seam approximately 1.5 inches in from the point of the triangle - repeat for the other side. Now your bag has a flat bottom.
Sew your straps onto the bag (I did a decorative zig zag on my straps to continue the decorative look). To sew the straps, I do a box seam - I sew about 8 stitches then pivot and sew 8 stitches down, pivot, 8 stitches across, pivot, 8 stitches up. It makes a nice secure seam that also looks nice (I used black so it didn't compete with my red thread).
I chose to sew velcro onto the two sides of my purse so that Eden can fasten it and keep her stuff from falling out. You could do a button or a hook or nothing at all:
The end.