Margo Handbag - Step 9

Step Nine is to work on the lining assembly.

According to the instructions, I steam pressed the fusible woven interfacing to the lining pieces. I turned the fused pieces over and steamed them again.  Steam pressing from both sides strengthens the fusion.

Also per the instructions, I cut these down to the final size.  I am not the only person who questions this step.  If there's a reason these were not originally cut to the final size, I don't know what it is. But, hey, I followed the instructions!

On the interfacing side of each lining piece, I marked the zipper fold line:

I cut two-inch squares from the lower corners:

I folded the pocket pieces in half lengthwise, right sides together, and pinned the cut edges together:

I stitched along the long cut edges, and steam pressed the seams:

I turned the pocket pieces right side out, preparing to enclose the seam allowances in the hem.  This picture shows the gist of it:

To press this hem, I started by centering the seam, keeping the seam allowance towards the looping, like this:

I then placed this seam near the edge of the ironing board:

This allowed me to steam press the seam open with the seam allowance to one side, as viewed from the other end of the piece:

After they cooled, I rolled the pocket pieces back into position, with the seam allowance enclosed by just enough fabric wrapped around them:

After pressing the pocket pieces flat, I used an edgestitch foot to guide my stitching along the hem:

Here's one pocket piece folded over to show both sides:

I placed the pocket pieces on the lining pieces, and pinned in place:

Once again, I used the edgestitch foot, this time to guide my stitching along the bottoms of the pockets:

To start off the pocket dividers, I used a quilting ruler and pink fine-point marker to mark the stitching lines two inches in from the ends of the pockets:

I pinned inside the stitching line:

After stitching the end dividers, I played and fiddled with the exact pocket divider sizes.  Here you can see the stitching from the reverse side of the front lining piece. The front pockets will hold pens and other narrow and mid-sized items:

Here is the stitching on the reverse side of the back lining piece.  The back pockets will hold larger items:

Step 10 is to install the zipper.