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Purse Week Kick-Off with Guest Tutorial: Create and Delegate!

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**The guest used flickr to host her pictures and they have not been working.  I found what I could online to fix the tutorial, so hopefully you will still be able to use it and make sense of it.  :)

It’s here!  The beginning of purse week, a celebration of those cute accessories us women get to carry around our essential items in.  It’s also the final week to get your purses entered into the contest. 

To kick off purse week, we have Nicole from Create and Delegate.  If you haven’t stopped by her blog yet, you need to!  She has some great tutorials. Here are just two of the many great tutorials that are on my list of things to complete someday.  Hopefully sooner rather than later!  (click on picture to view tutorial)

Take it away, Nicole! 

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Hi!  I’m Nicole and I have a little craft blog called Create and Delegate.

I am completely honored (and a little nervous) to be guest posting at A Lemon Squeezy Home during Purse Week!

Right now I’m wrapping up “Make A Sweater Better” on my blog.  For the past month, I have been posting tutorials about repurposing/refashioning old sweaters. I thought I would share a purse tutorial I created, especially for Purse Week, out of a sweater!

DSC_0133

Materials:
1 sweater
fat quarter of fabric
fusible interfacing
batting
purse handles
ribbon

Tutorial:

Cut 2 for your sweater, interfacing, batting, and lining. Iron the interfacing onto the wrong side of your sweater by pressing and lifting your iron across the sweater so the shape does not stretch and get distorted.

Stack your cut pieces.  The sweater pieces should have right sides touching, and be sandwiched in between the batting. Sew both sides and the bottom with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Box the corners by laying the side seams against the bottom seam.  Sew it across the corner approx 2 1/2 inches from the point.  If you aren’t familiar with boxing corners, try here.  Turn your bag right side out.

Cut 4 pieces of  ribbon into 3 inch lengths.  Feed the ribbon through the handle openings and pin them upside down onto the right side, top edge, of the purse.

Arrange your lining pieces so that right sides are touching.  Sew both sides and bottom, but leave an opening at the bottom with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

With your sweater right side out, and the lining wrong side facing out, slide the lining over the sweater.  Purse handles are between the layers.  Line the edges and pin.  Sew all the way around the opening with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Pull the sweater through the opening at the bottom of the lining.  Sew the opening at the bottom of the lining closed.

Tuck the lining into the bag.  Press the top seam so the lining lays flat inside the bag.

Enjoy your new sweater bag!

Thanks again to Christie for letting me share my tutorial, and good luck to all the participants of Purse Week!

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Isn’t it so cute?  I love it.  And it looks like it isn’t difficult, which is great since we could all use a quick project!

Thanks for the great tutorial, Nicole!  And thank you for saving me from having to do my post tomorrow after being at the doctor’s office for 3 hours last night (with my 5 year old for a possible broken arm)!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. That looks like a super easy bag to make ! I just need to find those handles ;) Thanks Nicole and Christie :)

  12. Wow, I like it! I am Victoria and I recently created a blog with the idea of making my own sewing course, I am so excited and I love to find inspirational ideas. This is one ;)
    Thanks,
    Victoria.

  15. Awesome! I’m offering two purse tutorials this week myself on my blog: placemat purses and hardcover pocket”books”… A play on words for the latter. I love this sweater purse! Absolutely adorable with a colorful lining to offer a breath of freshness. The buttery sweater does that, too!

    Can’t wait to see your other tutorials! Mine are on Tuesday and Thursday!

  17. Amazing project with great color choices and a tutorial that even beginning sewers like me could tackle with confidence! thanks so much for sharing! I’m going to link to this on my weekly blog linking party (Sun-Wed..) and would love to see you there with even more projects. It a great party with tons of inspiration from readers around the world!

  19. Getting your hands on those handles should be pretty easy for most of you. All of the big name craft stores like Joanns, Michaels, & A.C. Moore carry wood purse handles (i’ve seen them in my local WalMart too). I used Heather Bailey fabric from the Nicey Jane line for the lining.

  21. I’m totally LOVING this bag! Love the colours and patterns you used. You make it look so easy, (but I bet it’s not) Wonderful job.
    Lisa

  22. I am going to venture into the world of sewing to make this. I saw this skirt at the resale shop for $6 and I think I can get 2 purses out of it. I bought the rest of the stuff at Jo Ann’s..I am a little scared as my sewing isn’t that great, but it looks like all straight lines.

  24. Can you tell me what stiffness fusible you used. I was worried about it falling if I don’t use something stiff.. Thanks love it. I wonder if you can wash it..Why not it’s a sweated…….

  25. I mean sweater. Having a Hot Flash that’s why I wrote sweated.. check out our blog
    desirable-junk.blogspot.com
    We are trying to drum up followers we will be having a contest.

  28. Hi has anyone had trouble sewing through the thick layers like I am? What did you do to work with that? Thanks!

  29. It looks like you didn’t box off the corners on your lining, is there a reason you didn’t? Do you wish you had after the bag was complete. I tend to have my lining perfectly mimic the structure of the outside of a bag, but maybe that’s just me/habit!

  30. Since it’s a guest post, Terri, I’m not sure why she didn’t, but it wouldn’t hurt to do that! Great idea :).

  31. It’s such an adorable bag! Great tutorial! How about using fusible batting instead of separate batting and interfacing? Think that could work? Can’t wait to make one!

  33. Thank you! I have had a too-small cotton sweater sitting in my project bag FOREVER wanting to be a bag, but all the tutorials I could find were about felted sweaters. I can’t wait to do this now!

  34. I love this tutorial and will totally make one of these! I wanted to let you know, though, that your photos here have been stolen and are making the pinterest rounds under another blog name. I’d want to know if someone was stealing my blog content… Email me for the specifics. I don’t know if I should post the links here or how you’d like to handle this.

    Again, LOVE the purse idea!

  35. Hi Jennifer, thanks for letting me know. If it’s under the name create and delegate, it’s ok because she is the one who created the tutorial and was my guest blogger for the day during purse week. But if someone is taking her tutorial and claiming it as their own, I would be interested in checking it out. You can email me dillonandchristie (@) gmail (dot) com Thanks!