Panda Face Zipper Pouch Purse Tutorial

Recently, I was commissioned to create some fun zipper pouches using Ann Kelle's Urban Zoologie in Spring panel fabric. I had never attempted a project quite like this before, so at first, there was a little trial and error in figuring out the best way to make these tiny animal face bags. I think the end result works wonderfully.

The following Panda Face Zipper Pouch Purse Tutorial gives specific instructions for using the Panda fabric panel to create this purse; however, the same steps and methods apply for using any of the animal face panels to create a simple zipper pouch, wristlet, or purse the perfect size for a child. The fabric panels that will work for this tutorial include a fox, panda, lamb, two dogs, and a cat. My daughter loves the fox coin pouch I let her keep!

Keep reading for a list of supplies and step-by-step instructions to create this precious Panda Face Zipper Pouch Purse!

The Fairport Purse by Radiant Home Studio

Today I'm taking part in the Radiant Home Studio 2nd Birthday Celebration with this gorgeous Fairport Purse!

I've been searching for months for the perfect project to use this lux sateen fabric on, and the Fairport Purse design is it! I paired the sateen with a textured faux leather and lined it with Essex linen. I couldn't be more pleased with the results!

Green Bee Scoop Tote

Recently, I participated in Purse Palooza hosted by Sara of Sew Sweetness. Throughout the month of October, bag pattern reviews were posted by a variety of bloggers and sewers. These reviews provide a great resource for anyone considering making one of the reviewed patterns.

For my bag pattern review this year, I chose to sew The Scoop Tote by Green Bee Patterns. I purchased this paper only pattern as part of a kit from Craftsy (affiliate link). 

This post contains affiliate links through which I may earn a small commission on purchases. 

Field Study Tote Bag by Betz White

Today I'm sharing with you the Field Study Tote bag by Betz White. I recently made this lovely bag for my first contributor post on the Betz White blog. It was my first time sewing one of her bag patterns, and I can't say enough good things about it! Keep reading for more details on the Field Study Tote and to see more photos of this awesome bag!

The Field Study Tote bag is versatile and can be worn as both a large or an extra large bag. There are times when I am on a school field trip with my children or spending a day out at a local fair where I need to carry more items than usual, and the Field Study Tote gives me the flexibility to do just that!

Sewing Blogger Secret Gift Swap

Recently, I participated in a secret gift swap with a group of sewing blogger friends. We've done this once or twice before, but this year, we decided to wait a few weeks after the holidays to exchange our gifts.

Here's how the secret gift swap works. Those who want to participate sign up and provide information on their favorite colors, fabric shops, or other useful information (like favorite chocolate). Then a designated organizer (that was me this time) uses a random method to assign each person someone from the list to make a gift for (the recipient).  Everyone gets a couple of months to decide what to make or buy and then ship it off to their recipient, but not before sharing a few little sneak peeks of the gift first! The recipient doesn't discover who sent the gift until it arrives.

We all love getting gifts in the mail, so it's a fun, fairly inexpensive way to brighten the day of a friend or even a stranger. My friends and I have gotten to know each other pretty well over the last few years, and the gifts we all exchanged with each other really showed that this time!

My Cool Butterfly Sling Purse

A few months ago, I participated in Purse Palooza at Sew Sweetness and shared the first Butterfly Sling Purse I had ever made. Today, I'm bringing home my post and sharing this awesome bag with you all here in case you missed it! Plus, you'll get to read a little history of how I started making bags!

Perfect Petal Purse & Pirates Treasure Wallet + Giveaway!

Now that my daughter, Ella, is in school and has a dress code, I'm finding that I don't have as much to sew for her anymore. Makes me so sad, but I'm finding new ways to make little things for her and for her older brother--accessories! When Fenna from Fabulous Home Sewn announced a pattern tour for her Perfect Petal Purse and Pirate Treasure Wallet (affiliate links), I jumped on board to make both for my children!

The Satchel Bag for Selfish Sewing Week

I love the idea of Selfish Sewing Week. It's a reminder that sometimes we just need to make ourselves a priority and sew something that we get to keep and enjoy!

When sewing for myself, I almost always prefer to sew a bag or purse. For Selfish Sewing Week, I chose to make myself The Satchel Bag from Sewing Patterns by Mrs. H. This was the first pattern from Sewing Patterns by Mrs. H that I had tried, but I have been admiring The Satchel Bag design for some time now. So glad Selfish Sewing Week gave me the nudge I needed to try it!

The Retro RuckSack Pattern

I really enjoy sewing purses and bags. They are typically projects that are more involved and challenging than sewing a typical child's garment. When I sewed my first purse more than two years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed making it, and to this day, I continue to love the challenge of a purse or bag pattern!

Recently, I had the privilege of meeting Sara from Radiant Home Studio. She contributed her Water Bottle Tote pattern to the Perfect Pattern Parcel #3 bundle, and I chose to sew one up for the pattern tour.  As you can read in my post about my Water Bottle Tote, I was very impressed with Sara's pattern and design skills, so when she asked me to be a part of her Retro Rucksack Pattern tour, I did not hesitate to say yes!

The Totes Ma Tote Bag

My favorite bag designer, Janelle from Emmaline Bags, has just released her newest pattern:  The Totes Ma Tote Bag!  I was thrilled when Janelle asked me to test out the pattern for her.  I already had the perfect Echino fabrics on hand to make up this bee lovers version for my husband's aunt, Jeannie, who is an apiarist (aka beekeeper).  

That's right folks!  I'm giving away this beautiful bag as a gift! I hope Jeannie will love it as much as I do, but don't worry, I already have plans to make myself my own Totes Ma Tote bag as soon as I can make time!  Now I just need to come up with something just as good to make her husband, Terry!  They are both so good to us and our children and give us all the free honey we can eat!  They sell their honey here, at Queen Bee Gifts.

Now, back to the Totes Ma Tote bag.

Tips for Upcycling Purse Hardware

Today I'm bringing home my Tips for Upcycling Purse Hardware guest post I did for Melly Sews last month.

When Melissa of Melly Sews asked me to consider writing a guest post around the topic of upcycling purse hardware, I had a "why didn't I think of that first" moment!  Ever have one of those?  Well, it is a great topic, and one that I was excited to write about and share what I discovered with you all.  I hope you'll discover a new thing or two by reading my Tips for Upcycling Purse Hardware.

If you enjoy sewing your own bags and purses, then you know all too well how expensive and sometimes difficult it is to find good, quality purse hardware, especially at local stores.  This dilemma is what prompted me to begin salvaging good, quality hardware from used purses to upcycle on new bags that I sew.

Purse Hardware Upcycling Guest Post

Today at Melly Sews I'm sharing my tips and tricks on upcycling purse hardware. If you like to make bags and purses, then you'll definitely want to see this post!

 

Have fun sewing!

A Reversible Echino Purse

A couple of days ago, I showed you the beautiful new purse and zipper pouch I made for myself using Japanese Echino Fabrics.  Of course, as soon as I finished my new ensemble, my daughter, Ella, asked if it was for her!  Since I had two more prints from the cute fabric shop, Modes4U, I decided to make her a reversible Echino purse of her own!

Side one was made with Echino canvas fabric Buck Stag with Glasses in Blue.

While Side Two was made using forest hart owl turquoise Echino canvas fabric.  I love the patchwork designs on this fabric!

A New Echino Purse and Zipper Pouch for Me!

With Spring in the air, I decided it was time to swap out my purse for something new and fresh! I've been dying to try out some of the gorgeous Japanese Echino Fabrics, and making a new purse with them seemed like the perfect project to do just that!

I received four pieces of Echino fabric from this cute fabric shop, Modes4U.  They have one of the largest selections of Echino and other Japanese fabrics that I have ever seen, and it was extremely difficult narrowing my choices down to these four!

Disclaimer:  I was provided with the fabrics and the purse lock in exchange for my honest opinion about these products.

Snowflakes & Lace with sewVery

Wow!  What an exciting week!  Co-hosting the Snowflakes & Lace Series with my friend, RaeAnna from Sewing Mama RaeAnna, has been such fun.  I've truly enjoyed seeing all the projects our guest bloggers contributed to the series, and I've discovered so many new ways to use lace from those that joined our linky party and pinned to our Pinterest board.  Thank you so much for making the series a success!

As promised, RaeAnna and I are both sharing with you today our ideas for using lace.  For me, I knew immediately what I would make for this series--a Lace & Leather Clutch!

About a year ago, I visited my local Goodwill Outlet Store where you literally rummage through bins to find treasures, and that is where I found this beautiful piece of vintage lace!  The original piece was roughly 18" long, and I found a similar green lace piece that is over a yard long with it.  I assume both pieces are vintage since they were in a pile with several old patterns and other notions from most likely the 1970's. I knew I couldn't let these beautiful pieces end up as trash, so I snagged them for mere pennies!

Months pass and I'm watching Project Runway All-Stars when I see a clutch with a hand strap used with Christopher Palu's Bonnie & Clyde look.  I thought that was such a neat idea, so when I was deciding what to make for our Snowflake & Lace Series, I knew I would sew the same style of clutch.

Since the cream lace I had rescued at Goodwill was wide, it was a natural choice to use it to embellish the hand strap on the clutch.  The clutch itself is just a basic zipper pouch made from wool suiting material I had on hand.  I topstitched leather to the bottom corners of the clutch to add even more texture and color to the bag and then sewed the lace to a strap that is attached across the front of the bag.

The inside is lined with a neutral duck cloth and the wool fabric is fused with Pellon Shape Flex 101 for added structure.

This bag took me about an hour to make, and I just love it!  I have enough of all the materials to make one more identical bag which would make a perfect gift.

Front

Back

Since we started this series, I have had lace on the brain and am beginning to use some of your ideas to incorporate it into my sewing more.  I hope you found some inspiration too!

Please be sure to visit RaeAnna to see the adorable Lace Snowflake Top she made her sweet little girl. Her project makes we want to crank up the embroidery machine again!

Also, you have just a few more hours to enter our giveaway.  We have three awesome prizes up for grabs!  Enter below.  Winners will be selected and announced in our wrap-up post on Sunday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks again to you and all our guests!  Have fun sewing!

My Boyd St. Bowling Bag + Giveaway!

If you follow my blog regularly, you probably already know that I am a HUGE fan of the bag patterns from Emmaline Bag and Patterns.  Janelle does the most amazing job from conceptualizing a bag design, to creating the pattern pieces, to photographing and explaining in detail each step of construction.  In other words, she's very talented!

Well, Janelle's latest pattern for the Boyd St. Bowling Bag does not disappoint.  She teased everyone about a month ago with a picture of her test bag, and I knew immediately that I had to have it!

At some point this past year, Janelle and I started exchanging emails about bag hardware, fabrics, and other sewing related things.  So when I saw a message in my inbox from Janelle a few weeks ago, I wasn't surprised to hear from her, but I was surprised that she wanted ME to test out her pattern for the Boyd St. Bowling Bag!  I was so excited!

Immediately, I knew I wanted to the handles out of faux leather or vinyl.  I had never sewn with that material before--until now!  I was also drawn to the shape and style of bag which is a departure from all the other bags I have ever made.  I'll discuss my experience with sewing vinyl a little later in the post, but first, let's go over more of the actual bag details.

After making the Teardrop Bag, another pattern I purchased from Emmaline Bag & Patterns months ago, I knew I wanted to use canvas or duck cloth again for the lining.  I really like the way the duck cloth holds up without adding any interfacing to it, and it's not difficult to sew with even when layered with the outer bag fabric.

The inside also has a slip pocket and a zipper pocket both made from quilting cotton lined with a medium weight fusible interfacing.  I sewed down the middle of the slip pocket turning it into two smaller pockets perfect for holding my cell phone on one side and mints and lipstick on the other.

For the exterior of the bag, I used two different printed duck cloth fabrics in shades of off white, yellow, and gray that I purchased at Hobby Lobby.  This duck cloth is considerably thinner and softer feeling than the utility grade duck cloth I used for the lining.  I did apply interfacing (Pellon SF101) and fusible fleece to the wrong side of the exterior fabric to help give it more shape and support.

Construction of the bag itself was not difficult and would definitely be suitable for someone who has prior bag sewing skills or an intermediate seamstress.   The design of the bag includes two small pleats on the front plus the curved top piece which is ideal for using a coordinating fabric to match the bottom half of the purse.

Another feature of the Boyd St. Bowling bag that I love is the zipper closure across the curved top with a zipper pull on both ends to make opening and closing easier.  Janelle even shows you a super easy way to cut the fabric for the gusset so that your fabric pattern matches up.  See how the chevrons are all lined up properly in the photo below?

The pattern provides an option and instructions on how to construct a detachable adjustable strap that would hook onto the zipper pulls on either end using a swivel hook and D-rings.  I didn't think I would ever use the strap, so I chose not to make one.

The bottom of the bag is reinforced with a piece of Pellon Peltex 71.  This was my first time to use this type of interfacing, and I was quite pleased with the results.  Again, Janelle's instructions made sewing the bottom together a breeze!  The bottom of the bag is firm and sturdy and has six metal purse feet to not only help protect the bottom from wear and tear, but to also give it that more professional look.

To construct just the bag portion of this purse, I sewed on and off over the course of a day and a half.  Not bad considering I had lots of interruptions from Ella and had to run errands and get my son at school!

Now onto the vinyl handles and tabs.  As I mentioned above, this was my first time to ever sew with vinyl, and I was so excited to try it on this bag!  I found some really nice marine vinyl in the remnant bin at Joann's.  This type of vinyl is so soft and supple compared to the normal utility vinyl  that I think of when I hear the word vinyl.

I love how my vinyl handles eventually turned out!  They really make the bag look store bought and professional!  Don't you agree?

Anyway, Janelle gives very detailed instructions with lots of photographs on how to construct the strap tabs and handles--in both fabric and leather/vinyl!  Again, she taught me several new things and introduced me to some new sewing notions (like double sided wonder tape, upholstery thread, and a sewing needle for leather) that I had not tried before.  I always know that after I finish one of Janelle's patterns, not only am I going to have a terrific new bag to use, but I'm also going to be a much more experienced and knowledgeable sewer!

In order to sew the vinyl on my machine, I sometimes used my walking foot, my regular sewing machine foot, and my regular sewing machine foot with scotch tape on the bottom.  I also used a long stitch length of at least 4.  This part of my bag construction was definitely a challenge, but only because my old Bernina Record 830 from 1974 just doesn't have the power needed to sew through multiple layers of the vinyl.  I had to hand turn the wheel often just to get the needle to sew especially when I sewed the strap tabs to the bag body.  I also had to put a piece of stabilizer on the underside of the bag because the fleece was tangling the bobbin thread and not advancing the stitches properly.

After some lengthy email discussions with Janelle, I believe she decided to rate the Boyd St. Bowling Bag Pattern as suitable for an intermediate to advanced sewer with a note stating that prior experience and knowledge of sewing with vinyl or leather is recommended for those who want to make vinyl handles.   If you have a heavy duty or commercial grade sewing machine, then I would think sewing multiple layers of vinyl would be no problem for you!

Of course, her pattern gives full details on how to make the exact same strap tabs and handles using regular fabric which I know I will use the next time!  My machine should have no problem tackling multiple layers of regular fabric and interfacing.

I'm so looking forward to using my new Boyd St. Bowling bag.  It's gonna hold a lot of stuff since it's so big (roughly 16" L x 10"H x 5"W)!

So, what do you think?  Do you want to make a Boyd St. Bowling Bag for yourself?  Well, as of Monday, it's officially for sale at Emmaline Bags and Patterns along with hardware kits to make the bag in case you don't want to run all over town (like me) to find the supplies!

Janelle is also hosting a contest and offering up a copy of the Boyd St. Bowling Bag Pattern and hardware kit to two winners!  How awesome is that?!  You can enter the contest below and the winners will be announced on Wednesday, April 17th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Oh, and in case you'd like to see all the other bags I've made using patterns from Emmaline Bags and Patterns, just click the links below.  And Janelle just released another cool pattern for the Necessary Wallet Clutch that I purchased immediately!  Can't wait to try it out, too!

The Emmaline Bag

The Steph in the City Bag

The Teardrop Bag

My Boyd St. Bowling Bag has been featured over at The Train to Crazy today!  Thanks, Andrea!

The Uptown Hobo Bag & Giveaway

In the past week, I have officially tested out four new patterns for different designers!  What fun I've had!

One pattern is the Uptown Hobo Bag from Rose at the blog Rose Is A Rose.  The Uptown Hobo Bag is her first purse pattern up for sale, and I am so honored to be able to help her out with testing.

Rose did a wonderful job of creating a stylish, spacious, and very functional bag.  It's roughly 14" wide, 11" tall, and 4" thick.  Believe me.  You can put a lot of stuff inside this bag, and the large flap helps keep it all safe and sound.  I've been using mine for the last several days now and I absolutely love it!

The pattern pieces are simple and clearly marked, making it a cinch to cut out all the fabric and interfacing required.  Rose then guides you through each step of constructing the bag, including installation of either a magnetic snap or turn lock for the closure, with detailed written instructions and labeled photos.  She really did an excellent job putting the whole package together!

For my Uptown Hobo Bag, I used quilting cotton for the exterior and reinforced it with a layer of Shape Flex interfacing and fusible fleece.  The lining is made of duck cloth with no additional interfacing added to it.  I've used duck cloth as the lining of the last two bags I've made, and I love how it holds up!

For the purse strap, I used some marine vinyl fabric that I purchased as a remnant at Joann's.  It's very supple and looks and feels like real leather.  This was my first experience in sewing with vinyl, and I can definitely attest that it was a challenge.  Rose's pattern does not call for leather or vinyl to be used, so you won't find any tips or tricks on how to sew it in there!  I just searched the web and  used some advice offered up in another bag pattern I tested at the same time (that I'll share with you soon).  I think the vinyl was a nice addition to my version of the bag, and I would use it again for a bag strap like this one.

On the interior of the bag, I kept things simple and only included a slip pocket for my phone and mints.  I debated whether or not to add a zippered pocket to the exterior that I could keep my phone or keys in for quick access, but opted to just stick to the pattern this time!  However, Rose does offer up full instructions for how to install an optional zipper pocket to the interior of the bag.

Overall, the Uptown Hobo Bag was a simple, straightforward purse project that offered up instant gratification.  I was able to complete this bag start to finish in one afternoon.  It's definitely a project suitable for a novice purse sewer or an intermediate beginner.

Would you like to try making your own Uptown Hobo Bag?  Then either hop on over to Rose's blog to purchase your own copy of the new pattern, or enter my contest below for a chance to win a copy.  Thanks for stopping by!  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This bag has been featured on the following blog parties:

   

The Teardrop Bag

After days of sewing and multiple roadblocks, I have finally finished my Teardrop Bag!

I bought this pattern months ago from my friend, Janelle, at Emmaline Bags and Patterns.  I have really enjoyed using her patterns, and I can now say I have completed the Emmaline Bags and Patterns trifecta--The Emmaline Bag, The Steph in the City Bag, and now The Teardrop Bag!  I feel like I deserve a really big prize, especially after conquering this last one.

As you know, not all projects go smoothly from start to finish.  In fact, most of mine rarely (if ever) are done without some sort of issue (whether it's human error or machine error), but my Teardrop Bag endeavor had more than its fair share of challenges.

First, I printed out the pattern months ago when I purchased it.  I read through the instructions on my computer then, too, but opted to not print them out.  No big deal.  I do that all the time to save paper, ink, and space. However, I can only guess that I failed to check the scale of the pieces I had printed out and taped together.  I discovered this error only after I had cut out all the lining pieces and the rectangle pieces of fabric used to cut out the outer bag.  My pattern pieces were 3/4" shorter in width than the fabric!

What I then learned is that when printing out pdf patterns on my HP Deskjet 1050 printer, I have to use an A4 paper size instead of Letter and make sure that I check the actual size option.  I've been having issues with pattern printing for a while now in the form of some lines being cropped from the print area (but the pieces are normally to scale).  I have no idea why I suddenly thought to try printing them out on A4 paper, but it seems to have solved all those printing problems!  Yay!

Ok.  So back to the issue at hand.  Since I had already cut out several pieces using the scaled down pattern version, I had to run with it, which ended up being just fine because this bag is huge!

Now I've finished cutting out all my pieces, and I go to the ironing board to starting fusing the fusible fleece to the outer bag when I discover that my fabric has faded spots all over it on one panel.  I then inspect the left over fabric more carefully and realize that roughly 1 1/4 yards out of the 2 yards of the Joel Dewberry Aviary 2 Bloom Granite fabric I ordered online was flawed! Luckily, there was enough undamaged fabric to cut out duplicate pieces of the ones that I had to replace.  Ugh!

Next hurdle was deciphering the pattern instructions.  You see, I opted to make my Teardrop Bag with both the optional gusseted zipper opening and the o-ring handle mounts--both of which were additions to the original pattern instructions.  Because of this, you have to skip some of the original steps and jump to a different page here and there.  With two children constantly running around and interrupting me, it's a wonder I got this bag finished at all!

I'm glad I made a gusseted zipper opening since I never have, and Janelle's written instructions and photographs made understanding each step of the process very clear.

However, I'm not sure I really like the gusseted zipper opening on this bag after all.  I thought it would be nice to have since the opening of the bag is so large, but I find it somewhat awkward to zip and unzip.  It actually requires both hands which sometimes can be a bother.

At first, I goofed up and sewed the zipper in wrong for the inner pocket.  I was distracted by my children, (so they get the blame for this, too!) but I picked it out and fixed it.  I learned how to sew a zipper pocket from Janelle's tutorial that is included with all her patterns. It's really a great tutorial!

I also added a slip pocket to store my phone and tin of mints.  No problems with this step!  Whew! But I wish I had sewn it in a little lower.  The gusset zipper gets in the way of the top of the slip pocket.

I used a lot of pins to secure the outer bag to the lining before sewing them together.  Because I used canvas fabric for the lining, the overall bag was rather stiff and at times a challenge to maneuver under my sewing foot.  I have never been poked by pins as much as when I was sewing the outer bag to the lining!

All was going well on the third and final day of bag construction when I had to use the seam ripper to remove one stray stitch where I had sewn on the o-rings.  I guess I don't know my own strength, because I pushed the seam ripper so hard that it slipped and sliced open the top of my left hand index finger.  It began to bleed immediately, and I thought I would faint!  I can't stand the sight of my own blood.

I'm not so sure I agree with Janelle's difficulty rating for the Teardrop Bag. She has it listed as Easy -- For Advanced Beginners.  Now, like I said earlier, I've made all three of her bags, and the other two were listed as Intermediate to Advanced which I agree with her on that.  But with the gusset zipper and o-ring handle options that I chose to tackle, I believe that the Teardrop Bag rating is most definitely an Intermediate to Advanced bag.  Without those options, then I would agree with her rating.  Would that distinction on her pattern have deterred me from tackling the exact same bag I made?  Most definitely not!

Overall, I'm very excited about this bag and have really enjoyed using it the past several days.  The exterior fabric is gorgeous, and I really love how nice the bag looks with the way I pieced the coordinating fabrics together.

This is the first time I have ever used canvas as the lining of a bag, and although it was a little challenging at times to sew, I'll use it again.  I like how it makes the bag have more structure without using interfacing.  In fact, the only other thing I used was some fusible fleece on the back side of the outer fabric in order to give it a little more strength.

So, there you have it!  That all said, this is one whopper of a bag!  I'd say it's the biggest I've ever made.  Even bigger than this Sweet Pea Tote I made last year!  Although I made my bag slightly smaller than the regular sized version (due to my printing error), Janelle's pattern offers you an option to make it even bigger!  I think she refers to it as the XL size!

It's so much larger than what I would normally carry that I made up a matching zipper pouch to keep small items neat and tidy inside the larger Teardrop Bag.  I also threw together a matching tissue holder.   Since this post is now way too long, I'll share more about them another day.

Oh, and the bag matches the Commuter Cowl I made, too.  Ella took this picture of me--not bad considering she's not even 4 yet!

Linking up at these parties as well as others shown here.

This bag has been featured at these fun parties!  Thank you!