Wonder Wallet

I recently made a Runaround Bag as a gift for a coworker.  Here's the link to that project.

That fabric was from my stash.  I had some of that fabric left over, so I cut the rest to make some Wonder Wallets.  Here's the link to the Lazy Girl Wonder Wallet pattern.

This is an easy project that makes quick gifts.

Here's a picture of my cutting process:

I started by cutting and folding the pieces in sets, according to fabric:

I folded the main (body) pieces and pinned them to be stitched about half-way down each side to form a flap.

Tip:
I placed one pin on each side to show where I would start stitching:

The stitching ended at the flap.  For the first three wallets, I traced something round to form a curve.  For later wallets, I did not make curved flaps, which made the process go quicker.

I turned and pressed the body pieces:

I stitched the folded hems of all the pockets.

Tip:
I used a method called "chain piecing" for most of my stitching.  This means that I "chained" my work together by sewing one or two stitches between fabric pieces:

I cut apart the chained pieces, steam pressed the parts, and mixed up the patterns for a unique look:

I attached a piece of velcro to each lower pocket piece:

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For a quick fix, I daubed a dot of white glue on the Velcro piece, finger-pressed it onto the pocket, and let it dry.  After they dried, I stitched around the Velcro pieces:

Tip:
There are many layers to this wallet, so I held them together with quilt binding clips:

After I stitched the pocket layers together, I trimmed the seams and corners:

I also finished the cut edges with zigzag stitching. This is also where I remembered to topstitch the flaps:

I turned them right side out and attached the opposite Velcro pieces to the flaps:

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On the later wallets, I topstitched the flaps much earlier in the process, chaining the pieces:

Tip:
I used the quilt binding clips again to hold down the steam-pressed coin slot flaps until they cooled and set:

I ran out of fabric, so I had to change a couple names from non-coworkers to coworkers, and even then, not everybody got one.

Most everyone seemed to really like their Wonder Wallets. One friend put lots of cards in hers while we were talking!  That made my day!

Runaround Bag v2

I made a Runaround Bag for myself this past summer.  Here's the link to the Lazy Girl Runaround Bag pattern.

We recently had a party at work with a gift exchange.  I knew I wanted to make a gift this year, and I decided on a Runaround Bag.  I found that I had some fabric, but I did have to buy a zipper for this project.

We drew names, and finding who my gift recipient would be confirmed that my stash fabrics would be perfect.

Instead of sewing one row of stitching down the center of the straps, as instructed, I edgestitched both sides of the straps.

When it came to applying fusible batting to the lining piece, I did follow the instructions this time!

I did mention in my previous post about this bag that I did not sew the final seam in one fell swoop, as instructed.

Here's a picture of how I did this:  I stitched up the left side, across the top, then down almost to the zipper.  I also stitched up the right side about half way.  This allowed me to leave the handles laying out straight so they wouldn't be in the way of my stitching:

After that (not shown), I opened the zipper from the inside, and pulled the strap out through the zipper opening.  then I finished stitching the right side and the bottom.

Tip:
Here's how I restitch corners, slightly to the inside of the original seams, before clipping the corners

Back to our regular program:
Here are three pictures of the final project:

The recipient likes it, and several people guessed that I was her "secret santa."

Margo Handbag - Step 8

I'm back!  I know it's been a month since my last post, but I never said I was the world's fastest sewist.

Step Eight is to make the handles.

The idea of the assembly of the handles is to wrap the fabric around some batting and interfacing.

The instructions for the handles star with folding a long edge by one-half inch.  I thought of three ways to do this, and I couldn't decide which method to use.:

• Measure with my hem gauge and pin the heck out of it.

• Measure with a Dritz Hemming plate, and use the iron to turn and press the fold.

• Lay my heavy ruler on the fabric, one inch away from the edge, and fold the raw edge to the ruler.

I think too much.

I asked some of my sewing friends and acquaintances for their methods, and I got more confused. At least two people had methods which would require a complete do-over of the handles.

One person reminded me that "the idea is to have a place to butt the batting against, and then encase it."

Oh, Light Bulb Moment, Thank You!

So, I folded the fabric strips in half, lengthwise.  This did not require any measuring, but I did use lots pins:

I steam pressed the fold and let it cool under the ruler:

I opened out the fold and placed the fusible batting strip to one side of the fold:

I tried my best to get the batting as far into the fold as possible. I steam pressed to fuse the batting in place:

I was surprised to find that the batting did not actually make it tightly into the fold:

I centered the interfacing over the batting, and placed the assembly along the ruler on the ironing board to make sure it was straight.

I pressed this with steam, which partly removed the center fold. I folded the long, narrow edge around the batting and pinned well.

Tip:
When I pin a long edge, I usually pin at an angle. In this example, when I press, I will be moving the iron from right to left, That's the same direction the pins are pointing, so I will be less likely to scratch the sole plate of the iron:

Back to our regular program:
I then wrapped the other side of the strip over the batting, as tightly as I could, and pinned it in place:

After a good press, I wrapped and pinned the last little width of fabric around the batting, as shown in the lower half of this picture:

After the last pressing, the last fold was tucked into the middle of the assembly:

Here are the straps, ready to be stitched:

I stitched along both strap edges, and then I stitched down the middle.

I placed the handles on the front by aligning them to the sides of the front pocket, then I pinned them in place.  I used a quilting ruler to align the strap to the back of the purse before I pinned them into place:

Here is where I checked to see that the front and back handles lined up:

Tip:
I basted the handles in place along the length of the handles for two to three inches. The handles are less likely to twist when stitched this way. the basting stitches can be removed later:

Back to our regular program:
After basting the handles on, I stitched across the ends of the handles as instructed. Here is the view of these stitches from the reverse side, and the basting, too:

Step Nine is to work on the lining assembly.