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.

It is essential in patchwork to use the appropriate materials. Like the fabrics, using 100% cotton patchwork fabrics ensures that your quilt will last a very long time.

	Lady Birds on Pink Patchwork Fabric
	Pooh and Roo Patchwork Fleece
	Quilting Pattern-a-Day 2010 Desk Calendar

Learning patchwork is a therapeutical experience for me and all my coleges at the Patchwork Classes I am attending. I started quilting and doing patchwork 7 years ago. One of my very good friends gave me a few books and a few fat quarters. The beggining projects did not go very well, but I kept trying because I loved it so much. Over the years I did quite a few different quilts, cushions and other projects. But a year ago a Patchwork Shop was opened in my town and I joined the classes.

I have improved a lot and I am enjoying patchwork now more than ever.  At the moment I am investing in a good patchwork specialized sewing machine, the Elna Quilting Queen. I am excited like if it was Christmas. It’s a fantastic sewing machine as good as a Bernina Aurora 440 and because the make is not so well known in Spain is about 400 € cheaper.

I recomend that if you are about to begin to learn patchwork not to invest in such as expensive sewing machine, you can start with a simple quilt easy sewing machine, like the basic model of a Pfaff or a Bernina but basic. I am going to put together a list of sewing machines from begginer to specialized patchwork sewing machines.

The patchwork classes I am attending start learning patchwork with a sampler quilt all hand made, so if you want to start and you don’t have a sewing machine is OK for now. I am going to introduce you to a 15 block sampler quilt that you can do it by hand . Click on the category starting sampler quilt to start learning patchwork.

Good luck and have fun.

I am going to give you some tips on how to get some free patchwork patterns online. I find that http://www.freepatterns.com is one good source of patchwork patterns. All you have to do is sign up with your email address and create an account with your password, then activate your account with an email they send to you and that’s it. Then you can go in and get all the freebies you want, from free quilting and patchwork patterns, to sewing, crochet, knitting, etc.. By clicking on the download button on their website you can download to your computer those fabulous free patchwork patterns.

Another good web site to get free patchwork patterns from is http://www.freequiltpatterns.info/. Just scroll down the main page  and you will have there a list of free patchwork patterns ordered alphabetically, choose the ones you would like.

In the following link http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/01/sultry-jelly-roll-project-sheet.html, you can get some fun ideas on how to do lovely things with jelly rolls and layer cakes of Moda Fabrics.

This section will be updated regularly, so keep coming back for more free patchwork patterns and sewing ideas.

There are many people like me totally passionate about patchwork and quilting, if you are one of them this is the site for you. I am going to post here every week my process in my current projects, free patchwork patterns and if anybody has any request I shall consider the option to investigate the possibility of finding any patterns you like among the net or the quilting community I am part of here in Tenerife.

I was introduce into the magical world of quilting and patchwork by my dear friend Margaret about seven years ago. She is being quilting for over forty years now. I was amazed by her patchwork and the amazing quilts she created from this tiny pieces of materials sewn together. She gave me some of her books and I started trying to quilt. I did learn some things, I even made a few quilts, not all that well though. But last year I was so lucky that the sisters Marjorie and Mary opened a patchwork shop near where I live and I joined theirs patchwork classes in Los Realejos, Tenerife. The shop is called The Quilters Place, beautiful and very well stocked with everything you can possibly need to start your patchwork adventure. If you want to see their website go to http://www.thequiltersplace.es.

The purpose of this web site is to help all the quilt lovers to find free patchwork patterns, e-books, new ideas and patchwork designs, appliqué and materials. Also where to get the best bargains in patchwork books with lovely patterns, the best patchwork material collections and where to order from …