Patchwork bags

Patchwork bags are very fashionable at the moment. Learn how to make your own. Read all the instruction first before you start your project of a patchwork handbag. Make sure you understand the instructions first. If any questions, don’t forget to contact me. The patchwork bag is very simple to make once you understand the procedure and it doesn’t require a great knowledge of patchwork or sewing. Enjoy it.

The very first patchwork bag I am going to show you is the one I made myself. It is pretty easy to make. What you need is 45 x 50 cm of fabric for the interior of the bag, plus two patchwork fabric pieces exactly the same size for the outside of the bag. You will also need wooden purse handles, or the handles of your choice, and buttons for decoration. You might prefer embroidery threads to decorate your patchwork bag. It’s totally up to you.

  Start by choosing the decoration of the front of your patchwork bag. If you are going to use embroidery, do it before sewing the handbag together. Cut the four pieces of material   45 x 50 centimeters as we mentioned before. Now take a piece of lining and a piece of the outside fabric and sew right side together, mark 20 cm from the bottom with your marker exactly. Sew as seen on the picture on the left. Remember one piece of lining and one outside together, sew both of the pieces of your patchwork handbag .  Sew leaving a seam allowance of 1/4” or 0.5 cm by machine or hand sewing.

Make sure your measurements of the 20 cm are correct in both fabrics, the lining and the outside one. Pin together before sewing marking exactly the 20 cm in each side. Do the same with the other piece of lining and outside fabric. We will continue working in the inside of the fabrics until we are finish.

Now we need to position the two linings together and the two outside fabrics together, right sides facing in. It might seam a little awkward now, because the part is being sewn is inside and looks a bit messy. But believe me it would be ok. Sew in the following way: Using a round plate mark a circle at each corner with your fabric marker, use pins to pin the two fabrics together right sides in.  Remember that now we are preparing the shape of the handbag, the bottom of the handbag.
As you can see in the Picture 2, sew the two lining fabric right side together, mark the round corners first and leave a small opening (about 6 cm) like in the picture to turn the bag inside out when finish. Try to get as close as you can to the line already sewn (remember the 20 cm of the other side of the handbag), if you need to leave a small gap is OK, you can always finish those bits off by hand. Now sew the two outside fabrics together with the round marks, there is no need for a gap here. Start sewing from the point you stopped before, the 20 cm you sewn before. Pin together the whole project to avoid any movement of the material while sewing.
When you are sewing the two outside materials, start from the joint point of the two pieces and continue all the way to the other side. Think that this would be the outside of your material. Use a good quality 100% quilting thread to make sure is resistant. When you are sewing the interior or lining together, leave a gap for turning the bag inside out. When you are tracing the round corner, be creative and use the round plate of your choice. but always make sure you followed the marked line around the material with pins first and then slowly, sew it with your sewing machine. It can also be sewn by hand.

Now is time to turn it inside out. Brilliant. Now you can finish the lining by using some hiding stitch to close the gap. Press together so the sound corner have a good shape. If you couldn’t sew all the way in the two connection in the middle of each side, now you can fix it by hand sewing. 

Grab two wooden handles and sew each one to the rectangle edge. If you do it by hand, you would not notice the sewing. By sewing machine is more difficult, specially because the wooden handles will make it very difficult to maneuver.  Of course, you can choose the type of handles you prefer. Below I show you my patchwork handbag finished, I used a pretty rose to decorate the front side.

   You can see in this picture I used plain fabrics, not patchwork. To change the model and do a patchwork bag, choose a block or a chess design, combine the material of your choice, then cut it to the right size and make the bag in the same way. Creativity is the best quality for patchworkers. Enjoy it.

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