Hi Iām Jenny from the MSQC. Iāve got a
great little project for you. Take a look at this cute little tote. Quick and easy.
Handles, lining, everything. The best part is that out of one charm pack you can make
three of these. Take a look at this. Isnāt that the coolest thing ever? Three from one
charm pack. You heard me right. So what weāre going to do today is Iām going to show you
how to make this little tote. And it is just easy. Youāre just going to enjoy this so
much. So letās go ahead and get right to it. So what youāre going to need for this project
is youāre going to need 12 charm squares, just the squares, 12 of them. I used this
Tapestry by Victory and Company for Moda. I love Joanna Figuroaās stuff. And really
pretty, fun, fun different colors. And then youāre going to need for your handles, the
lining and the bottom, youāre going to need a little over half a yard. So Iād get Ā¾
just to be safe. So youāve got your 12 charms and about Ā¾ of a yard of fabric. And youāll
be able to make one of these bags. Now remember that in a charm pack thereās 42 charms.
And so if youāre only using 12 thatās only 36 charms for all three of these. So
youāll get three bags out of the one charm pack. And then youāre just going to add
your lining and handles on. So right here what Iāve done is Iāve sewn
six of these together. And thatās all you have to do. You just have to find six squares
to match and put together. Youāre going to sew them together in two, two rows of three.
And youāll need two of those. One for the front and one for the back. And then the bottom
of the bag is just a seven inch piece of fabric that youāre going to cut out of your contrasting
fabric. Remember you have your charms and then you have your Ā¾ of a yard of some kind
of contrasting fabric. And youāre going to cut that seven by the width of your charms.
Now the cool thing about this purse is I made, I, I came up with this idea when one of my
grandchildren needed a bag to carry their music in. And I thought well I have these
leftover charms, you know we can make a cute little bag. And so what I want you to remember
is that if you need a bag thatās bigger than that or taller than that, you just add
more charms. You know you can add another row. You can add five more rows. You can make
it taller, wider. And then what youāre going to do is your bottom is always going to be
seven inches wide by the width of your bag. So this one, you know, we just measure our
little charm things here. And they are, oh they come out about 14, roughly 14 inches.
So this is going to be roughly seven by 14. You know the, the roughly part depends on
your seam allowances and that sort of thing. So then what youāre going to do is youāre
going to sew these two together and make one long piece. So Iām going to go over here
to the sewing machine and do that. And weāll be lickety split about it. Back here. And
then Iāll just sew this other half onto the bottom right here. Line it up. Got to
keep it nice and straight. Sew your quarter of an inch. This is all done with a quarter
of an inch like, like you would do a quilt. So here weāve got this great piece. The
two sides are sewn together to the seven inch piece in the middle and we need to press those.
So Iām going to set this seam and Iām going to press. And Iām going to do that
on both sides. You want a nice flat piece for this. One of my seams is laying over all
wonky. And then just press it back. And you want this pressed nice and flat because the
next thing weāre going to do is weāre going to quilt it. Now I donāt do a lot
of free motion quilting. But what I do is easy. Anybody can do it. So youāre going to find a piece of leftover
batting. We all have scraps leftover from some project or another. And itās going
to be roughly the same size. Weāre going to lay our top on our batting. And then weāre
just going to sew along here to anchor it, if you will. And then Iām just going to
eyeball and just really guesstimate about a half an inch from, from, you know, from
one line to the other and Iām just going to sew the whole length of this over and over.
Now I have a piece here that Iāve already started. And this is a whole different color
of purse. And Iāve got, Iāve got it almost sewed up to this edge. So I want to show you
just how I do that and how really, you know, it doesnāt have to be perfect. Nobodyās
going to come and measure your lines, you know. It just, you just want it to have that
kind of quilted textured look. So weāll head over here. And I am just going to come
right here and really, seriously, you know relax. Iām just going to eyeball this from
one, one end to the other. And just go ahead and sew down here. Iāll get down here to
the end and Iāll flip my fabric around. And because the purse is small enough it can
fit in the throat of your sewing machine. Itāll be fine. Alright, well it looks like
I need one more time. So let me go ahead and do that. And youāll notice it isnāt even
totally straight. But it doesnāt matter because itās, itās, itās going to be
part of a purse that, you know itās going to be folded up with handles on it. I mean,
and nobody is going to pick at it and look at it. Ok so what we want to do here is, Iām going
to move this. And now we want to trim our top. So weāre just going to take our ruler
and Iām going to go along here and trim this. And Iām going to trim right through
the batting and the, and the quilt and make a nice clean edge. Because this top now is
going to become the pattern for my lining. What I love about this too is that I often
have little, you know, just, I donāt know a dozen or so charms left. And you know how
I hate the waste thing so this gives us something to do with these little charms thatās quick
and easy. Ok so now I have this piece here. This now becomes the pattern for my liner.
So I have a piece of fabric here, a contrasting piece of fabric thatās roughly the same
size. I already kind of pre trimmed it off of my, my big fabric that I chose to begin
with. So Iām just going to lay this down on here. And you have to be careful because
you donāt want to cut your top. But I am really going to use this as a pattern. Itās
going to be cut exactly the same size as the top. So Iām going to go along this side
and line up my ruler so that all Iām cutting now is that, is that bottom, the bottom lining
piece because they have to match. Alright now weāre going to start forming
our purse. And to do that, we move our, we do exactly the same thing to the lining as
we do to the bag to form the purse. So first weāll take the purse outside and weāre
going to fold it directly in half like this. Line up your top edge, fold in half. And weāre
just going to sew a seam down the sides like this. So letās go do that. And your seam
width on this, it doesnāt really matter. I come in a little bit more than a quarter
but you know if you have a good tight seam youāre good. And you didnāt probably notice
that I did backstitch a little bit on there. So now Iām going to do the same thing with
my lining. I backstitched a little bit on the edge of that because I just donāt want
it to come apart when Iām putting these together. You want to make sure your seam
allowances are the same. So if you decide to take a little bit bigger than a quarter
inch you want to take bigger on both pieces. So now you have these two pieces. And what
weāre going to do now is we are going to box the corners. This is going to give your
bag a flat bottom so that it can sit. And what I do is I just kind of put my hand inside
the bag and I kind of just push it around it like this so that it makes it flat. I want
to keep that seam fairly straight. And the rule of thumb on this is that how far you
go in on your bag is how wide itās going to be. So if I come in, you know, an inch
and a half, that means Iām going to have an inch and a half on either side of the seam
line. So thatās going to give me like a three inch bottom. I hope that makes sense
to you. Iām going to take a pen and Iām going to line up my ruler on my little seam
line I have here. And Iām just going to kind of roughly draw a line across here. And
then Iām going to stick a pin in here to hold that because I want, thatās where Iām
going to sew straight across there. So weāll do the same thing to the other side so you
get to see this twice. So here we go. I put my hand in there, lay it flat. Make sure itās
lined up in the middle and then I set my ruler on here. And Iām coming in an inch and a
half. Draw my line. Stick a pin in there. And then Iām going to take this over to
the sewing machine and Iām going to sew straight across there. Take out my pin. Donāt
want any crazy accidents. Nothing crazy going on. Alright let me get these threads off of
here. Do the same thing on this side. Alright now I would suggest that you flip your bag
right side out and take a look at it. And make sure that those, that bottom is how you
want it. So see how it does that? And it just gives is a nice little sitting place. It makes
the bottom nice and flat. So then you can go back and you can trim those off. If itās
how you want it you can go back and trim that off. So Iāve gone ahead and boxed the corners
on my lining as well. Did the same thing. Weāve checked it. We turned it inside out.
It looks good. And now weāre just going to cut those off. And you can do that with
a rotary cutter or a scissor. Just takes a little brave moment to come across here and
just trim that off. You just donāt want that extra bulk inside your bag. So we have
this one trimmed off. So now we have our two pieces, and weāre almost ready to assemble
our purse. But you want to make sure, when I told you to sew up the side seams we just
sewed them up. But you want to make sure you leave a little opening. So if you leave an
opening you wonāt have to pick yours out like me. Because thatās where weāre going
to turn our purses through the side seam. So weāre just going to leave a little opening
so I just picked out those two little stitches right there. And that will give me an opening
to be able to turn my purse when I get it in there. So we just need that little opening
right there. But the next thing weāre going to do is handles. Now your handles can be any width and any
length that you want. What I generally do when Iām making a purse is I, I put it on
my shoulder. I see how long Iām going to hold it, where Iām going to want it to hit
on me. So I start off just by cutting a four inch piece of fabric thatās the width of
the fabric. This is going to give me plenty of handle. You know if I want it long. When
youāve made more than one then you get used to how, what size you need. But just to start
off with it is always a good idea to have a little bit more because you can always cut
off some. But you canāt add to it. So I take a four inch strip of fabric like this
thatās cut the width of the fabric. And Iām going to iron that in half. And then
Iām going to iron my two sides to the middles. So I like a handle thatās about an inch
wide. This will differ. Everybody will have, you know has different, a different feel for
how they want things. This seems to work well for me. So Iām going to iron this to the
middle like this. Just. And then once you have your middle line ironed, it gives you
a guide to iron the sides in. So now Iām just going to kind of fold my sides almost
to the line but not quite. And because what I want to do is I want to make a strap that
is about an inch wide. So what Iāve done is I ironed my strip in half to give me a
middle point. And then I ironed, I just folded in, I just folded in just a little bit of
ways so that you can still see the middle line right there. But I want my handle to
be about an inch wide. So that gives me about an inch wide handle right there. And you may
want a little smaller or larger but this is how I like to do it. And then Iām going
to open these up and Iām going to lay a strip of batting in here. I have some one
inch strips cut. And Iām just going to unfold one side. It doesnāt matter which side and
lay a strip of batting in there. And I even have, you know I love to use scraps. So I
have, I have a couple of pieces and it doesnāt really matter. You know it doesnāt have
to be one long piece is what Iām trying to say. There we go. Weāll just lay that
one in there. So then what weāre going to do is weāre going to overlap our piece of,
our handle onto itself like this. Iām going to whack off this little strip. Then weāre
going to take this over to the sewing machine and weāre just going to sew several rows
down along the handle. You can see Iāve done that on this handle. You might be able
to see easier on this side. I used a lighter thread. And you can see that itās, you know,
theyāre about a quarter of an inch apart. And I just kind of seam it down. I just start
on the outside edge. Let me take this over here to my sewing machine. And I start here
on this outside edge because I want it close in, you know make sure my, my, my batting
doesnāt come sneaking out. And Iām just going to sew along here. And once itās all
folded up in there, I mean you can just whiz along these. Itās just a quick little process.
Then I just bring it around and the, and the next one Iām going to sew is the exact same
distance on the other side. So weāre going from the, weāre sewing from the one side
then weāre going to sew down the other side. Then weāll put a filler seam in the middle.
So Iāve sewed one seam on either side. And now Iām putting the last one right down
the middle. And thatās going to give us a handle that has some, thatās you know,
itās good to hold onto. So now that our handles are done, we are ready to assemble
our bag. So Iāve got my handles. I cut both of the
ends off so that theyāre matching. And Iām just going to kind of hang them over my shoulder
and see how long I want this bag to be. And then Iāll just trim them at the same time
so that theyāre the same length. And these end up, these are about 40 inches, a little
bit, you know, ya about 38 inches. You know just about that long. And how I put these
in is I take the body of my bag, and itās inside out. So the outside is showing. And
I make sure my handles are going the same direction and I set them down inside the bag.
So then Iām going to measure in inch out from the seam and put a pin in that handle.
And Iām going to put an inch out on this side and put a pin in that handle as well.
And weāre going to do that to the front and back of the bag so we have two handles.
So again we want to hold it to make sure itās got no twists in it. Weāre going to bring
it up like this and weāre going to drop it down in that bag. And weāre going to
put an inch in from the side seam. You can use the side seam or you can match it straight
across from the other handle that you have. And thatās probably what, thatās what
I did. And then Iām going to do the same thing on this one. Iāll hold my bag across
and so my, my handles line up. You can see right here. I just match them from one side
to the other. And then pin that. Then what weāre going to do is weāre going
to drop our lining in. Now our bag is inside out but our lining is right side out. And
remember you have this little hole here on the side because thatās where weāre going
to turn it. So weāre going to drop this liner right down inside here. And weāre
going to line up the side seams. So Iām going to put a pin right in here where the
side seams are. See Iāll just match them right there and put a pin. And then Iām
going to put my lining over where the handle is and Iām going to move my pin so that
now Iām pinning all three of those layers together. So my pin will now go through the
handle and the lining and the outside. And Iāll do that same thing on this side over
here. And this is a good place to check and make sure that your lining is the same size.
Because if your lining is a little bigger itās really easy to fix. You just take in
that seam a little bit. So Iām going to go ahead and pin these and pin where my handles
are. Make sure your handles are straight down. And then Iāll pull this tight across here
and Iām going to put a pin in the middle. And one over here. And you have to remember
to be sure and take these pins out before you sew over them. And youāre going through
several layers. And then our middle piece is right here. And you just guess the middle
and stick a pin in there. You just, what you want is you just want to be able to sew around
the top and not have to worry about it. So now we head to the sewing machine and weāre
going to sew this top part of our bag. And I kind of like to do this a little bit wider
than a quarter of an inch . And start on a side seam. So Iām sewing this a little wider
than a quarter of an inch . And Iām just taking my pins out as I come along. Donāt
lose your pin. You donāt want to find that later. Almost lost that one. Make sure your
handles are straight. Alright. So now your bag is all sewed all the way around
the top. And weāre going to reach in here and find our opening that we, that we opened
on our, left open on the side of our bag. And you can leave your, leave an opening on
or you can put it on the bottom or anywhere that you want. Itās just convenient on the
side. And youāre just going to stuff the whole bag through that hole. So weāre just
pushing it through there. You can give your handles a little pull. It will help you free
things up. And I reach in here with my arm and I push out these corners so they are nice
and straight. And I do it on both bags. Then weāre going to go ahead and push the lining
right down inside because youāll notice now that even though it came across really
crazy that itās all lined up right. Our lining lines up. Our handles are right. And
the last thing left to do is weāre going to go along this top edge and weāre just
going to topstitch it all the way around. And that will keep it, the lining down in
there tucked down. And it will give added strength to your handles. So letās go ahead
and do that. And make sure your handle, make sure you donāt sew over your handles, that
would be a , that would just be a terrible thing to have happen. So pull your handle
out like this. And you want to make sure that your seam is lined up . So if youāre worried
at all about those two pieces, you know, fold them down and put a pin there. Iām just
going to zip along here and, and watch as I go along. Let me scoot these over here so
we can see better. There we go. Iāve got so many handles here, Iām going to, Iām
going to run over something if Iām not careful. There we go. Alright now we have one more tiny thing to
do and that is we still have this little hole in our side. So what you can do is you can
pull this seam together like this and you can just stitch it on your sewing machine
or you can handstitch it, whatever youād like to do. Iām all about the sewing machine
so Iām going to do that really quick. Because we donāt want things falling down into our
lining. And as quick as that you have a little tote bag. Just easy and quick. If you want,
several little tips Iām going to give you. If you want to add a pocket on your lining
youāll want to do that before you sew it up. If you want to put a catch on your bag
or a snap or something like that, youāll put that in also before you sew this lining
top together. But you can do all kinds of things with this. Remember they can, the straps
are adjustable, the bag is adjustable depending upon how many charms you put on it. And you
can get three of these out of one charm pack. So we hope you enjoyed this tutorial from
the MSQC.
I just found this, and I think it's terrific. She makes it look so easy! There is also a tutorial for easy zipper pouches. I am working on a quilt for a friend, and she has two little girls. I think I'm going to try using leftovers to make each girl a tote.
Love it! Her tutorial on the 3 big bags from a jelly roll of also awesome. I made those and use them for grocery shopping. I think I'll have to try these for smaller shopping trips