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Friday, March 9, 2018

Purse How To....

I am still cleaning as fast as I can, but I thought that I would show you how I design the purses, so that you can get yourself some graph paper and do the same.

I use the 4 to the inch graph paper.  That makes each square three inches in mini size.


 I work from real purses or photos of them.  I take measurements and then draw them out on the graph paper. When I do the ones with the foam core center, they are automatically three inches thick.

The one you see here, I padded with batting and then covered the sides. I cut across the corners so that they will fold nicely The batting is the same size as the purse and the fabric is about a quarter inch larger. that way I have an eighth inch to fold in on all sides. The side fabric simply gets folded to the side of the purse.  It will be covered with whatever leather or fabric you cover the sides with.  In this case, it was suede. I covered all of the sides with a strip of suede and cut it to meet at the bottom. Then I cut a very thin strip of leather to work as the handle and attached it to the sides of the purse. The top piece has a slit down the center and a piece of trim that looks like a zipper laid between the two pieces.

For the one piece purses I cut the body of the bag out of a piece of poster board.  You can use card stock, but those don't hold up as well as the poster board. 

I lay the piece of poster board that I cut on my leg and go over it with a pen or something similar to make it curve where I want it to. In the photos, you can see that I cut two pieces of fabric for the side gussets.  You can do  those with fabric that is a little larger and fold it in or you can cut it with little wedges. I think that for beginners it is much easier to cut it just straight about an eighth to a quarter of an inch away from the edge.
Then the ones on the body of the purse get folded in and wrapped around the edge.  The ones on the gusset get glued to the inside edge of the body of the purse.

With these, you can actually add the handle by gluing the ends of the leather under the flap of the purse.

The red one has tiny belt buckles holding the strap on.

The black and beige one has it glued to the insides of the flap. None of these open.  You can make them so that they open, but then you have to make some kind of snap or other way to hold them closed. 

Good luck! Have fun! Make lots of purses.  Several of the Wednesday Witches are making purse boutiques. Another idea is to make a purse closet or armoire. Just have fun with the idea!

See you tomorrow.

6 comments:

junemac2 said...

Wow loving your blog and going to add to follow. I enjoy creating small scale things too. currently working on a dolls house which will be darkly gothic.
Hugs June x

Unknown said...

Rather than a snap, would mini magnets work to open and close the flap?

Marian said...

fantásticos tutoriales. Tessie se divierte mucho.
Un abrazo

Fabiola said...

Your purses are fantastic!

Caseymini said...

Good idea Suzanne!

Giac said...

Hello Casey,
Thank you for the tutorial.
Big hug
Giac