Purse Construction

Our power was off all day yesterday, so I had to put off the assembly of my beaded-knitting purse. Thankfully it came back on about 7 pm, so today I could get on with the job.

I'm going to show how I put the purse together, step by step, as a record, so that I won't have to go through the same thought process when I make a full size bag.

Step 1 was to measure the beaded knitting, length and breadth. I then cut a piece of stiff interfacing to those measurements, and a piece of satin lining 1.5 cm bigger all round

On my first attempt, I ironed the interfacing to attach it to the satin, but that made a horrible, bubbly mess, so I cut another lot and just sewed the edging in with my sewing machine.

The next step was to make the gusset, twice the length of the small edge of the bag, and a few centimetres wide after hemming:

I folded the gussets in half and hand sewed them to the larger piece to form the bag lining:

I then attached the bead work to the outside of the lining, using quilting clips to avoid pin marks on the satin

I had to experiment to find the best way to sew the beaded knitting to the lining. Eventually I decided that back stitch with the knitting selvage showing worked best. I still have to sort a fastening out. I hope to use a magnetic clasp for the clutch bag, but for this purse I'll probably use a press stud. So that's it, I should be able to do that again with a full size bag.