Ruffle Backpack Tutorial

This is only one box of ruffled lace that was given to me by a friend. She had collected all this lace because she made fabric scrapbook covers. I knew I could think up something to do with all this lace. I have several ideas but the first one I came up with is a ruffled lace backpack. I made a trial one a few weeks ago. There were a few things I wanted to work out differently. So I made two more which I like much better. From the pictures they look about the same. But on these I boxed out the bottoms and I strung the straps so the opening closed more efficiently. And I decided to take some pictures of the process so I could try my hand at writing a tutorial. So here goes.

Supplies:15" X 34" outside fabric (I used a polyester heavyweight twill)

2 pieces 17" X 3" same as outside fabric for strap casings

15" X 34" lining fabric (I used a floral cotton)

4 yards of cording for straps

And an assortment of pre-ruffled laces at least 15 inches long. I used about 14 pieces of varying widths.

Start by sewing the lace in overlapping rows onto the front of the 15"x34" outside fabric. Make a mark at the 17" halfway point of the piece and then make a mark 2 1/4" up from the halfway point. Sew the first piece of lace so the bottom edge meets this mark. Continue adding lace overlapping the row before it slightly. The very top piece of lace should be about 1/4" from the top edge of the fabric. I found it helpful to mark a straight line about every 3 inches on the front to keep everything lined up. I didn't do this on the first backpack I made and my rows got a bit slanted.


Now make the strap casing. Take the two 17"x 3" pieces press under 1 1/2" on each end and top stitch a hem. Then press them in half with wrong sides facing. Sew them to the top edge of the ruffled piece both front and back. Leave a 1/2" on each side.






















Now is the time to thread the cording through the casing. Cut the 4 yard piece in half make two 2 yard pieces. Thread one piece into the casing front and back according to the green line in the picture. Thread the second piece according to the red line in the picture.



Even the ends of the cords and pin one set on the left side of the bag and one set on the right side. Pin them at about one inch above the lower edge of the first row of lace. Stitch them in place by back tacking several times as these will get a lot of stress and you want to make sure they don't come undone.




















Now turn the bag right sides together and sew the side seams. Starting at the top edge back tack right next to the casing and sew half inch seams all the way to the bottom fold. Catch the straps in the seam where you have back tacked them in place but be sure not to catch them in any other place.












Now box out the bottom. Line the side seam up with the bottom fold. Measure 2" up from the point. Sew across the line. It is the black line in the photo. Be sure not to catch the edge of the lower piece of lace in your stitching. Turn the bag right side out. See how that makes a boxed bottom.







Make the linning by sewing the side seams right sides together with 1/2" seams. Box the bottom of the lining the same way as the outside bag.

To keep the lining from pulling out of the bag insert the lining into the bag and line up both points. Sew point together so they fold to the inside.






Finish off the top of the bag by sewing the linning to the outside bag right sides together. Pin the side seams first and turn the bag inside out. Sew around the top edge leaving a 3" opening at the center back of the bag for turning right side out. Turn the bag through the opening. Topstich the top edge closing the opening left for turning and stitching the top ruffle so it is kept from rolling up.

Ruffled Drawstring Bag

I came across this tutorial a few days ago and decided to try it out. I have seen similar bags before I think this idea has been around for a long time. She explains the process for making this very well in her tutorial even though English is not her first language. It is a very easy and useful project. She used it to store threads in. I thought it would make a good travel jewelry pouch.

This would be a good project for a beginning seamstress. I think kids would enjoy making it because you can use some of those fancy stitches on your sewing machine. I used a couple of daisy stitches on mine. You could make this elegant or simple just by changing the fabric. I used quilting cottons for mine. I could see it made up in silk or velvet. It would also make a nice travel sewing kit or even a first aid kit. I think this is a great little bag.

Lace Ruffle Backpack

A friend of a friend gave me a huge stash of ruffled lace trims a few months ago. There are yards and yards of all different styles and colors of lace trim mostly white and ecru. As soon as I acquired this stash I began thinking up ways to use it. My first idea was a ruffled apron, and then maybe a ruffled tote bag. But when I saw this Ruffled Backpack idea on Craft Goodies I decided a ruffled lace backpack would be so cute. She even has a mini tutorial.

I used her idea but did my own construction method. This is my trial project and I am going to try and write up a tutorial for it. There are a few things I want to change. So hope fully I can come up with a tutorial in the next couple of weeks. I think this would be perfect for a little girl to carry her treasures in. I do have a couple of little girls in mind to give these to. But I don't have any little girls around to model this for me. So I rigged it up on this chest of drawers.

This really was a quick project because all the lace was pre-ruffled. The other cool this about this project is the fabric I used as the base. It is a polyester gabardine with a nice heavy feel to it and I got it from a friend as part of a huge fabric stash she gave me. So basically this project is from free supplies. The only thing I did buy is the white twill ribbon I used for the drawcord strap. I used three ribbons braided together to give the strap more strength. I bought the ribbon at a salvage store and paid $2.99 for a spool of 500 yards. That is a lot of ribbon!! I have used it for a few other projects. I also used some lilac flowered cotton for the linning of the bag. That was a freebie too.

Petite Purse

This past Saturday I attended Original Sewing & Quilt Expo. I had a great time and was able to pick up some lovely fabrics and new patterns. I was attracted to this booth that had adorable bag patterns and unique purse hardware. I got leather handles, cute zippers with charms on them and the pattern for the Petite Purse. They have and online store Quilt Plus.
The Japanese fabrics on the left are from a booth called Some Art Fabric
. I used the patchwork looking fabric for my little purse. The gold handles and the brown zipper I got to go with the Eiffel Tower fabric. I fell in love with just about every fabric they had in Some Art Fabric. I did purchase a few other pieces. I will save those for another post.

So today I made up my little Petite Purse. This pattern was super easy. It took me longer to hand sew the handles on than it did to cut out and sew up the entire purse. The handle could only be sewed by hand. They were not difficult to sew but they did take a bit of time. I plan to make another purse with a few changes to the directions. The pattern does have three size options and I made the smallest one. I am happy with the results although I am not sure if I can use it myself. I think the purse may be better suited for someone younger. My daughter may get this one. Also the fabric looks very summery and the fall season is upon us. But there is always next summer.

Some crochet

I took a little break from sewing and did some crocheting. I love crochet I taught myself when I was about 13 from a Woman's Day magazine. Well a friends mom taught me how to do the chain stitch when I was younger. But I believe I would have been able to pick that up easily by the pictures. I followed the diagrams and read what all the abbreviations meant and very soon I was able to follow a pattern. Really crochet is a variation of the same stitch (the chain stitch).

I like using cotton wash cloths and hand towels. I like making them because they are quick to finish and you can try a new stitch and make something useful. This hand towel is not a new stitch or anything fancy. It is simply single crochet with a single crochet border. I added the scalloped edge because I just thought it needed a little something. I got the pattern for the towel and the dish cloth from an older book I have called Crocheted Gifts in a Weekend. The daisy dishcloth was what the book called a pot holder. I am going to use it as a dishcloth it is not thick just one layer and a good size for a dishcloth. The pattern for the bag was a freebie I picked up in the yarn aisle at Jo-Ann. You can probably find the pattern on their web site. I used Sugar and Cream yarn for everything. All was completed in a weekend just like the book said.

I made another bag.

I liked the Weekender Bag so much I decided to make another one. I had another decorator sample books of suede cloth samples. These samples were all about the same size so I was able to match up a six by three grid of rectangles. I used the double sided buttonhole stitch to add a decorative touch to the seams. It made it look like laced together leather. I like to find opportunities to use one of the 400 decorative stitches on my machine. Most of the time using a decorative stitch just makes projects look homemade but every once in a while it adds the perfect touch.

I had a piece of rust colored suede cloth that was just big enough to make the bottom, gussets and handle. I added some pockets to the inside of this bag. The lining and the rust suede were both salvaged from a drapery workroom. These would have been thrown away as scraps but they worked perfectly for my bag. I even used this ugly fabric someone gave me as the interfacing. I needed something to give the bag a bit more body and this was a great way to use this fabric that I would never use in a place where you could see it. This fabric was to ugly to even use for lining.

The plum colored zipper I had in my stash. It was a two way zipper which was nice. But for a bag the sliders were going the wrong way. I had to change the direction from opening from the sides to the middle to opening from the middle out to the sides. I just cut off the stops and moved one of the sliders to the other side. Since my zipper was longer than I needed I was able to keep the excess in the seam so I didn't need to find another stop to keep the slider from coming off the end. So here is another bag from almost free supplies. I think the only thing I bought was the zipper and some Peltex for the bottom. The zipper came in a grab bag of 30 zippers for $7.00. If I see a deal like that I will usually buy it because I only have to use 2 zippers to save and I always have a collection of zippers for small projects. Sometimes the zipper color is not that important. I actually put zippers in the inside pockets and I had none that matched. So I used one pink zipper and one cream zipper but I am the only one who will ever see this.

Kitty Pouch

My latest small project is this zippered Kitty Pouch. I bought a kit with everything I needed at the sewing expo I attended in August. The booth was http://www.quiltplus.net/ The had all kinds of adorable things for purse making. This little pouch was pretty quick and easy to make. The direction called for a lot of hand sewing. Like hand quilting the layers together and even hand sewing the zipper in. I saw no need to hand sew those things especially the zipper so I did it by machine. The only hand sewing I did was to applique the cat head in place and embroidering the face. I like the size ans shape of the pouch and I would like to make more. It would be easily adapted to other designs on the front anything that would fit in the same space would work. A novelty fabric would be a cute and simple alternative to the applique.

A new bag

I picked up this kit for bags back in August 2009 at the sewing expo. http://www.barboriginals.com/ Everything I needed to complete the project was included in the kit and all I needed was thread and a bit of time. The pattern is called Three Bags Full. There are three separate bags of various sizes that hook together with d-rings onto the strap. I think these would be great to use when shopping or sightseeing when you want to be hands free but have a place to keep a few items organized. The strap is adjustable so that you can wear it over your shoulder. This was a very easy project and went together quickly. I think the hardest part of this project was getting the sliders on the zipper tape. I changed the pattern a bit by boxing out the bag bottoms.

Christ-Centered Christmas Swap sendout by 12/5 - ORGANIZED CRAFT SWAPS

Christ-Centered Christmas Swap sendout by 12/5 - ORGANIZED CRAFT SWAPS: "«" I joined another swap over on Craftster The Christ-Centered Christmas Swap. I haven't had a chance to start on this one yet as I am finishing up on The Stocking Swap first. I made some things for my partners boys today. I made some leather zipper pouches for their handheld games systems. I found these to be a bit challenging because it involved geometry skills. And I didn't have a game system to try them on I just went by the measurements my partner gave me. I stopped by Wal-Mart to see if they had any on display that I could try for fit. But they only had pictures on display and the actual games were locked and in their boxes. I was pretty sure they were not going to let me open a box to see if it would fit into my little pouch. They are just plain leather now but I am thinking about adding some kind of decoration to the side. I can't decide what to put on there or if the boys would prefer it plain. To me they look like tiny toiletry bags and I like them plain.