Fabric:  Tour de France

Materials:

Simplicity Pattern 4625 View A  (one size)

1 1/8 yards of 45 or 60 inch wide fabric (for the outside of the bag)
3/8 yard of 45 inch wide lining fabric
1 3/8 yards of 22 to 25 inch wide medium weight fusible interfacing
1 spool of matching thread

Suggested Fabrics:  Cottons, Denim, Linen blends, Synthetic Suede/Leather, Suede Cloth.

SBDF fabric used- Tour de France  cotton stretch

Overview of the project:
I was looking an easy purse pattern for new sewers. View A on this pattern looked like a good choice with a circular shoulder strap and cute tie decoration. My daughter and her friend Alyssa picked out the colorful Tour de France fabric at Sawyer Brook. They selected Ambiance rayon lining in periwinkle blue and lime green.

Lots of fabrics will work well with this pattern. Softer fabrics, like fine cottons, rayons and silks, get support and body from the interfacing. Heavier fabrics, like suede cloth and tweeds will also work. If you choose one of these fabrics, select a lighter weight interfacing to keep the bag from being stiff and difficult to work with.

Putting the purse together:
There is a bit of cutting out work involved for this project. You need to cut out eight of the handle pieces in your decorative fabric. Four of those pieces are for the strap facing. Pay careful attention to the single and double notches while you cut these out. Matching those carefully cut notches makes the sewing much easier! Before the girls started sewing we fused all the outside pieces with interfacing to give the purse some body.

Sewing starts with the shoulder straps. We found it helpful to keep looking at the pattern envelope picture, just to make sure we were putting the pieces together correctly. This also helps keep the straps from twisting. Another important part of constructing the straps was trimming the seam allowance and gently clipping into the curves to ease tightness.

We decided to make the bags during a day of cooking and sewing “camp” at my house. In the morning the girls picked out the fabric, lining and thread and created a lunch menu. After making a gourmet lunch of pizza and fruit smoothies, they headed for the sewing room where I had two sewing machines set up. The girls started the project about 2 p.m. on a Monday and were done by 6:30 p.m. that evening.

Rachel and Alyssa love their purses. The next day two more friends came over to sew their own purses! The girls just might go into production – so fast, easy and satisfying are these bags to make.

Techniques Learned   Rachel and Alyssa learned and used these techniques in constructing this purse:
Fusing interfacing
Trimming a seam allowance
Clipping curves
Sewing darts
Attaching a lining

Interfacing How-to

Simplicity pattern 4625 calls for 1 3/8 yards of 22 to 25 inch medium weight fusible interfacing, to give the bag some body and shape. Fusible interfacing is a piece of fabric that has glue dots on one side. When you apply heat from an iron to the smooth side of the interfacing, the glue dots literally melt onto the wrong side of your fabric piece to hold the interfacing in place.  You can buy many weights of interfacing. Decide how stiff you want your bag to be as you look at the selection of interfacing. We used a medium weight with the Tour de France fabric.
There are a different ways to cut out interfacing. The first thing to determine is how many pieces need to be interfaced. You can tell this by looking at each pattern piece and by looking at the layout directions of your pattern.  If the piece needs to be cut from interfacing it will say something like “Cut one (or two or whatever) from interfacing” on the piece itself. The interfacing will be fused to the wrong side of your fabric piece.

Gather all the pattern pieces that need to be interfaced. Then lay the interfacing on your cutting surface. You can cut glue side up or smooth side up, whichever you prefer. You may be able to fold your interfacing lengthwise so you can cut out two pieces of interfacing at a time. Sometimes, you may need to cut out one layer of interfacing at a time.

Lastly, you may be able to “sandwich” your interfacing with your decorative fabric. This is done by laying a piece of interfacing between the two layers of your decorative fabric, letting you cut out fabric and interfacing at the same time. If you choose this method, make sure that your interfacing width matches your fabric width. Also check to make sure that you can cut out the correct number of pieces of interfacing.  Pin the pattern pieces to the interfacing and cut them out. The interfacing can be pretty slippery so this may take some time. Handle the cut pieces gently, so they don’t stretch out of shape.

Once all the pieces are cut, move to the ironing board with your fabric and interfacing pieces. Lay one fabric piece right side down on the ironing board. Lay the corresponding interfacing piece glue side down on the fabric piece. Heat your iron to hot, but not steaming. You can follow the heat settings on the iron to match your fabric. For example, use a cotton setting on cotton fabric or silk setting on silk. Working on one small section at a time, move the iron in an up and down motion over the entire piece. The heat from the iron will bond, or glue, the interfacing to the fabric. Check to make sure that your interfacing is indeed bonding to the fabric.

 Occasionally you may get some glue from the interfacing on your iron. To avoid this you can use a press cloth. A press cloth is just a thin piece of fabric, preferably one that you can see through. Fabric stores sell them in a package, you can cut one from your own scraps, or you can buy a small amount of silk organza at a fabric store and just use that. A press cloth can be any size you like. I have one from silk organza that measures 18” by 18”. I also have a rectangular cotton one that I bought in a store. To use a press cloth, lay it over the interfacing and fabric before you use the iron. If you accidentally get some of the interfacing’s glue on your iron, you can clean it with iron cleaner that you can buy at a fabric or hardware store.

Interfacing all the pieces  at one time is really efficient. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to start the fun part – working at the sewing machine!

Carole