June 21, 2007
Project # 10 Summery Purse with Rattan Handles
My daughter
Rachel has been fascinated by wonderful selection of purse handles at Sawyer
Brook for a while now. I thought it would be fun for her to make a purse for
summer, since many of the handles feature seashells, rattan or some other
tropical type of design detail.
I found Butterick
pattern number 4148
that
featured cute circular handles and Rachel agreed that it would be fun to sew. We
picked up the Savaii handles and went looking for fabric.
Savaii Handles
Rachel walked to the barrel where we keep the silks and picked out the Conch Shimmer right away.
This
silk duippioni is gorgeous. It has a lovely golden shimmer that often looks
iridescent. While we were looking around for lining, Dixie walked by and
said she thought that the Fun House batik would be a perfect match. And
it was! We grabbed matching thread, a magnetic snap and headed home.
Fun House Rayon Batik
magnetic snaps
We had to make some some changes to
the pattern that Rachel figured out. "This pattern called for 7.5 inch round
handles; however, at Sawyer Brook, the biggest round handle is the 6.5 inch
Savaii handle. Because of this, we had to make a few modifications to the
pattern to make these handles fit. We examined all the pattern pieces, and
decided that the only two that were affected by the width of the handle were the
front/back piece
and the
bottom panel (#8). I looked at the small circles closest to the top on both
upper edges of the front/back pattern and measured the distance between them.
The distance was 7.5 inches. Because this was the same as the recommended
handles for the pattern, I decided to make it the same as the handles I was
going to use. I cut the pattern piece in half, and laid both pieces on the
table. I overlapped the middle about one inch (the difference in handle width),
so that the distance between the two top circles was 6.5 inches. Then, I taped
the pieces together, and measured them to be sure. Then, for the bottom piece, I
made a straight cut down the middle and overlapped it exactly one inch to match
the front/back. I taped this, too. After I did this, I noticed that the markings
for the middle handbag tab were no longer there. To compensate for this, I
measured the distance between one of the other pairs of markings, and made 2
dots that far apart in the approximate center of the top edge to refer to. For
the markings for the snap tabs, which were also distorted, I just centered the
tab over the markings the way they were after the modification. After these few
changes, I was able to cut out the purse," she said.
The Savaii handles were ideal for this purse, according to Rachel. "Their
unique texture and handmade look matched the smooth, professional fabric with
the perfect contrast." she said.
Cutting out the purse was easy. We fused interfacing to the Conch
Shimmer, as directed by the pattern instructions, cut out the silk and batik and
threaded up the sewing machine. We used silk pins and put a number 10 needle in
the machine.
The next day, things got a little tougher. The sides of the purse are connected
with bottom and side strips a few inches wide. When the bottom and side strips
are sewn together, they are sewn to the curved body pieces. The side strips and
body pieces come together at a top point that is precise. A couple of times we
pinned it so that the side strips extended beyond the body of the purse. We
couldn't figure out why things weren't lining up. The pattern is carefully
marked with circles to match up, but I wasn't super careful in my pinning. Next
time, I would make sure Rachel had everything very, very clearly marked. After a
bit of frustration, we finally figured out the mistake and pinned it correctly
and sewed it together.
Rachel sewed the magnetic snap to the
inner tabs, that are sewn to the lining, to hold the purse together. She sewed
the non-magnetized part on with the sewing machine. She lowered the feed dogs
and used a zig zag stitch, the same as you would do to sew on a button. Magnets
cause damage to computerized sewing machines and mine is a computerized Bernina.
So she had to sew the other side by hand, something she didn't like because the
needle kept gravitating toward the magnet.
Another tough part came when we sewed the lining to the purse shell at the top
edge. The sewing was easy. But the pattern instructions neglect to mention that
you need to trim the corners diagonally, trim the seam allowance and snip
diagonally into the corner to allow you to get a crisp shape on the outside of
the purse. Once we did these things, the purse looked a lot better.
The
instructions call for inserting a piece of cardboard between the lining and
fabric along the bottom and side strip to provide support, but we decided we
could do better than that. We used a piece of plastic canvas that created a nice
shape for the body.
Rachel's new purse was a little expensive to make. We used 5/8 of a yard of the
Conch Shimmer and Fun House. The handles cost $18. But Rachel is thrilled with
the result. She is delighted that she got to make something out of this
incredible iridescent silk. i know she will keep and use this for a long time. I
also have more confidence in her making more things out of silk. If she was
going to make a mistake, I think that it would be much better to have something
happen on a small scale, such as this purse, rather than a skirt or blouse.
Carole
The Details
Pattern used: Butterick 4148
Supplies: 5/8 yard Conch Shimmer ($18.95/yard), 5/8 yard Fun House
($12.95/yard), matching thread, magnetized snap ($2.50), 5/8 yard lightweight
fusible interfacing
Handle: Savaii ($18)
Lets see what YOU have been up to! Send us snaps!
Missed some of the earlier projects? Click here.
Got Questions? Check out the new Ask Carole Column on the side nav bar!
Teach Yourself to Sew! Threads magazine recently published a sewing guide for newbie sewers. To download a copy click here.
http://www.taunton.com/store/pages/nmt060_sewing_rev.asp
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