I made this bag a little while ago but thought that I would
share. A friend gave me a lovely fabric pattern book of samples containing
beautiful embroidered vintage silks from Lyon (c 1960’s ?).
Stunning fabric samples but how was I going to use lots of
smaller offcuts? I decided to create a patchwork bag. I hope that you like it.
Firstly I cut out 22 X 4.5 inch squares using a quilting
ruler and rotary cutter. Every square was a different combination of background
and embroidery colour, many with a cream background and others with a variety
of pastel colours. The embroidery also varied from pastel shades through to
intense browns, greys and purples. I laid them all out to decide how best to
combine them together. I also decided to alternate the embroidered flower
orientation – just thought it looked better.
Next I joined rows of the squares stitching with a quarter
inch seam allowance, creating 4 inch finished patchworked square blocks. I
stitched them on my overlocker to ensure that the seams were well finished and
edges enclosed. Silk can fray easily and I needed it to be hard wearing for a
bag. Many domestic sewing machines will also have a version of an overlock
stitch for finishing the seams.
Looking at the picture I joined the top left squares to
create a row of 2 blocks. Working down from the top left I then stitched a row
of 4 squares, then 2 rows of 5 squares, another row of 4, and finally a row of
2 squares from the bottom right. Next I joined the rows lining up the seams to
ensure neat aligned junctions where the points of the squares join.
To make the patchwork fabric more robust and stable to
function as a bag I then pinned it to some cotton curtain interlining (think it
is called cotton bump) and added quilting. I used a variegated embroidery rayon
and quilted swirling contour patterns following the outline shape of the
embroidered elements. To achieve this I dropped the feed dogs on my machine and
used free machine embroidery/quilting with a fine polyester thread in my
bobbin.
On the upper left of the pic is a sneak peak of some other embroidered fabric
samples in my stash – I really must make something with them soon.
Quilting around the embroidered elements made them puff up
slightly. This then gave me the idea to accentuate this. I made small snips in
the backing fabric and stuffed the back of the embroidered flowers with a
little polyester stuffing. I then hand stitched the holes with herringbone stitch
to hold in the stuffing. Finally I trimmed away the excess cotton bump from the
edges.
I made a quilted lining in cream fabric to match the shape
of the front fabric. I added some pockets for the inside.
I sewed small leftover blocks of fabric together to create
the handles, 2 inches wide by approx. 20 inches long. Again I quilted these
using cotton bump as a backing. I cut strips of lining to match and stitched
them together with right sides facing, and turned them through (finished size
1.5 inch X approx. 20 inch).
The construction of the bag is not what you might expect. I
got the idea from a lovely book by Sue Hawkins (Heavenly Handmade Bags 2006). Looking
at the picture: First join edges A together, again with a quarter inch seam,
repeating for each bag side. This forms the base of the bag. The join B to B,
and C to C, repeating on each side. Finally join D to D leaving block edge E
free. You now have the bag shape.
I constructed my lining shape in a similar way but left one
of the A to A sections unstitched. With right sides together and handles in
position at the points on the bag top I then stitched the bag and lining together
and turned through the gap left in the lining. The gap was then hand sewn using
a ladder stitch (so not visible).
I was delighted with my bag and being able to show off those
lovely vintage fabrics.
