Sewing With Nancy

Welcome to Sewing with Nancy, and to the first episode on how to create attractive accessories in an evening. This isn't a one-size fits all project. It's an accessory with 12 personalities. Handbags are the feature of this series. Since all of us don't have the same taste my staff and I developed a dozen variations of bags. You can choose the one that's just right for you! Our first bag showcases the most common fabric, cotton. Cotton prints are available in seemingly endless groupings. The drawback is lightweight cotton fabric if it's used alone, it produces a lackluster bag. The first sew easy project shows you how to combine unique foundation fabrics to make this Cotton Craze bag stand out in a crowd. "12 Easy Sew Bags," that's what's coming up next on Sewing with Nancy! Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman is made possible by Baby Lock a complete line of sewing, quilting and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting and special effect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala Sewing Cabinets hand built in the USA by American craftsmen customized for you. Clover makers of sewing, knitting, quilting and embroidery products for over 25 years. Experience the Clover difference. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. During each of the three programs during this series I'll be showing you four easy sew bags. I'm starting off, as I mentioned with the one called Cotton Craze because cotton is the most available fabric. Great patterns are available. As I mentioned, the lackluster portion of it is the weight. It's so lightweight. But this bag has a lot of stability, a lot of shape and it's all because of what's inside the bag not what fabric is used for the outside. Now the outside fabric, you have the choice. You can make it any color combination you'd like. My staff and I like to have one fabric for the outside and then a lining fabric. Of course, not a dark one, but a bright one so you can see what's inside your bag. You can also use it as accents around the tab or on the inside of the strap. So choose whatever fabrics you'd like. Most patterns or templates that make bags call for about 1/2 yard maybe 3/4 yard, of two different fabrics. You could use a pattern or a traceable template. Choose whatever bag pattern or tote pattern you'd like. But then add extra weight. Throughout this series I'm going to be using these same stability fabrics, foundation fabrics, on all bags. Now if a fabric is a little heavier, I may only use one but it is so important to give it support and shape. The fabrics are simple. First on the top is fleece. Polyester fleece is often used for craft projects or for quilting projects. Not very heavy, but again just a little extra "oomph" if that's a word, to add to a bag. The underneath fabric is a little more unique. It has kind of a funny name, "cotton duck canvas." Where the "duck" comes from, I don't know but that's what it's called. Inexpensive fabric. It's loosely woven and has support and stability. Easy to sew. So those two fabrics are used in combination in the body of the fabric. Like a foundation. Some of you are familiar with the term underlining. This would be an underlining in a skirt. But we're just going to call it some foundation in a bag. So from each of the canvas and also the fleece I've cut two layers for each section. So here I have the canvas and the fleece. You just kind of pin these together. The particular bag that I'm working with has a dart. Now if we would sew this dart with all these layers it would be very thick and be very bulky at that tip. So what I'd like to recommend doing at this point is after you've pinned these fabrics together-- If you wanted to, you could machine baste them. But just cut out the dart only on the stabilizing portion or foundation. Just cut that dart portion away of both the fleece and the canvas. Then, meet the cut edges together. You probably have to do a little more pinning than I have done. Meet these edges together. Here's a close-up of using the zigzag stitch just to butt the areas together. When you're done stitching, you have the fabric flat. The shaping is there, but yet you don't have any of the bulk. It's really an easy way of getting that shaping. Now here is the purse bag that has the darts sewn into it. The next step would be if both of these darts were shaped you just meet all these layers together and pin. You have, as you can see, a lot of layers to give that bag foundation. The third foundation piece is for the shape at the bottom of the bag. Often, totes and bags have this shaping at the bottom. But if they do not have proper support or stability they'll certainly sag. I like to use a stitchable plastic. It comes in sheets, either black or white. Here's the white form. I cut this minus the seam allowances. I do save all the little extras because we use the extra scraps throughout the series. Since it's easy to sew, but difficult to pin I use double-sided basting tape on the underside. Then I have positioned this on the underside of that shaping piece. This is the piece that this particular handbag has. Flip it over. I position this on top of the fleece. The stitching was done all around the edge to hold it in place. It is not included in the seam allowances. When it's sewn in, it gives that bag extra stability. So canvas, fleece, and stitchable plastic the three key ingredients in working with handbags. Most bags and totes require approximately 1/2 yard of outer fabric. If you're like me you have a collection of fabric fermenting in your stash. I'm sure there are selections just ripe for this project! Combine those hidden selections along with other small cuts of fabric to create an Artful Accents bag. Quilters, pay attention! The accent pieces started out as fabric strips that are common patchwork sizes. This easy sew bag will take on a different personality with each unique pairing of fabric. When you look again at this bag you'll see bright colors. You could make it more subdued if you'd like. But again, like the first bag I made it has some stability and shape. That's because inside I used the same foundation. The canvas, the fleece, plus a bottom stabilizer a plastic stabilizer. But the other portions of the bag definitely have some contrast to it. We have many options for fabric selections here for you to see. But this fabric would be the outer fabric. We've cut it out of a template that had a square lower base. That's what's needed for this particular style. Then the accent pieces, as I mentioned are the common quilting sizes. This is a 2-1/2" strip, a common jelly roll size a common quilt strip. You'll need two 2-1/2" crosswise strips. The smaller accent piece is 1-1/2". You could make it two inches, if you'd like. The choice is yours, just a small little piece. This section will be folded in half, meeting wrong sides so that it has that little flange accent. To create this, I'm working with another fabric combination. As I said, you can pair lots of fabric combinations together. This one has a little retro look. We have the fleece and canvas stitched to the cutout section. It's all one nice weight of fabric. To do the placement you'll need a little bit of measurement. Measure along the top edge as well as the lower edge, 2". I have my gauge set at 2". And the same at the lower edge. You could just mark along the top. Do some quick little marking for yourself. Perhaps you can't see it that clearly but it's right in that area. The accent piece, in this instance is going to be the turquoise color. It's folded in half. Here's my pressed piece. I'm going to meet the top edge, the raw edge, to the top and I would position this. Then meet the strip that has not been folded the jelly roll size, or the two-inch piece and stitch with a 1/4" seam. Here's a close-up of stitching that into place. Sewing along the edge, with the presser foot as a guide. For the lower section, you don't need the accent strip. Just simply lay the piece along the edge and stitch again. On this section, I have the lower portion stitched. You would need to trim out, for the gusset the extra fabric that you see here. We have a third combination ready to sew or ready to put together. This is a little polka dot. You can see that here the stitching has been completed. Now you would just press this upward. You can quickly see how this is starting to shape. After all these accents have been added you'll see at the bottom that depending upon the width of the gusset you will have a larger or wider section created at the bottom depending on how the bag is created. The bottom bag here had a 2-1/2" strip but because of the shaping you have just a little accent piece. You have a very colorful bag, perfect for a tote. A great quilter's sewing bag. It's easy to sew! Let's switch fabric moving from lightweight and drapable cotton to a fabric with plenty of stability, plus glamour. The shine and surface of faux leather, a.k.a. vinyl is custom made for bags. You'll find colors and textures by the yard that can match any diva's persona. Choose a simple pattern style and adapt what might be new sewing techniques to create this next "Easy Sew Bag." When you look at vinyl by the yard you might think, "Can I sew that?" Well, you certainly can because the technique just requires a simple pattern style as we have chosen for this bag. A square design style and simple lines. But the sewing techniques to create the edges will require some specialty techniques. It doesn't ravel, so that makes it a bonus. So we can cut edges to the correct size. But some of the other things that are needed will be specialty set-ups at the machine. First of all, a roller foot. This is probably the best hint that you'll need. When you look at the roller foot-- And I'll raise the foot-- You can see that this helps feed the fabric through the machine. You can use all-purpose thread. Then as far as the needle, choose a topstitching needle or perhaps a sharp needle. Size "90" is the size I like to use. We're working with straight stitches so you're going to lengthen your stitch just a little bit to "3.0" or "3.5" stitch length. When it comes to stabilizing or giving foundation to the fabric choose just one of the two suggestions that I gave you earlier today. I've chosen the canvas. I've positioned it with double-sided basting tape so that the canvas is positioned to the wrong side of the vinyl. Now, sewing the seams, because you're sewing on the canvas it makes it easier to feed it through. It's not going to be as difficult right now. This pattern happens to call for 1/4" seam allowances. Again, as I mentioned short, little seams. I have the stitch at about "3.5". And even though I have lots of layers I have a sharp needle, a large-eyed needle. I can certainly sew this very easily. I'll reverse this a bit and cut my threads. When I lift this up you'll see that the seam sews easy It went through fine. But then, when it comes to pressing this is where you have to take a little different step. It may be difficult to get in this area so I'm going to place the bag on the table and then I use a little wooden tool to press it. It's not going to stay open, but it will help shape the seam. After somewhat pressing the other side seam then you're going to be sewing the gusset at the bottom of the bag. You'll use the same sewing and quilting techniques just flattening it out and sewing the lower edge. There will be a lot of layers through here but with a longer stitch length and a sharp large-eyed needle it will sew beautifully. When you turn this right side out these seams have not been pressed any more than just with the wooden iron, so it will stay its shape. If you have areas of your bag that need the fabric to be flat as when adding the lining a little bit later just topstitch this area. When stitching on top of the vinyl this surface, because it's slick or shiny-- sometimes the presser foot doesn't glide smoothly over the fabric. One of the reasons for using the roller foot. Another option is to work with tissue paper. You can place the tissue paper underneath the presser foot or underneath the fabric and sew over the tissue paper for ease. That way, the foot will not stick to the underside or the top of the fabric. A place where I've sometimes used this on this bag was when creating the tab. The tab has a little different shaping. The underside has been trimmed minus the seam allowances. I placed the double-sided basting tape in this area and positioned it right on the tab. Now I will sew, by just folding this over. As I sew, again, a longer stitch length is needed. Just topstitch. You may want to use a stiletto or awl to hold this in place, shaping as you go along. This is not sticking so I don't have to worry about the tissue paper but some vinyls do have that tendency. After you've topstitched all the way around this you'll find that you have very flat, sharp corners and a bag perfect for any diva! My guess is that the piping on this bag caught your eye. The contrast of colors and the narrow accents give a touch of class to a very simple style bag. If you're wondering how easy it is to add piping don't give it a second thought. My "Easy Sew Bag" series takes the simple approach adding the piping will be effortless! If you've chosen a fabric and it lacks some color as this gray faux suede did by purchasing 1/3 yard of fabric or using a fat quarter, which is 18" x 22" I was able to cut bias strips and add on various accents to this bag giving it a little extra life and a very elegant look. The cutting of the strip width depends upon the seam allowances that your pattern or template may have. If you're working with 1/4" seam allowances you would cut the strip 1-1/4" wide. It's cut on the bias. The reason is that after you've inserted the cording the width or distance between the edge and the stitching will be 1/4" or very close to it. If you have 5/8" seam allowances cut the bias strips 1-3/4" wide. After sewing, then the distance from the edge to the seam will be that 5/8" seam allowance. That will be an important helpful hint when sewing a little bit later. To sew, I have used a standard cording that is used for most projects, and my 1-1/4" fabric. I have the cording sandwiched between the fabrics. You can see that I have used a cording or piping foot. It's hollowed out the width of the fabric. I have moved the needle so it's sewing next to the cording snugging that stitch. Really, all you need to do is to match these cut edges. Because of that hollowed out section it will guide in that area. You'll be sewing a much longer section than I just did. But you get the idea. Then, take a quick measure to make certain that this width is the size that you'd like. I think that I would probably have to measure and cut a little bit off here, so I have a 1/4" seam. But that's easy to do, just a quick 1/4" seam. You can also fuse your piping. Cut 1-1/2" strips. And at the ironing board, I'll show you how. I have the fabric 1-1/2" and then I have fusible piping. It has webbing wrapped around it. I'm cutting the strip just a little bit wider so that I don't get any webbing on the tip of my iron. I guide the iron right along that edge. And presto! It fuses. You don't have to do any sewing at this point. It's nicely sandwiched in there. Now I would require you to do a little trimming to trim that down to 1/4". Now the reason I was so particular about allowing a seam allowance on the piping is that you can use the cording foot to stitch your seam. On this particular bag, I used the fusible cording a fusible piping and then inserted it into the seam of this crescent style bag. It added a nice accent along with the embroidery. I kept the cording foot on my machine. The needle is in the same position. Then, I will meet all the raw edges together. The raw edges of the cording and the raw edges of the bag, and sandwich it together. Now I have started to do this. I'm just going to continue my seam. I'll layer back the fabric to show you how this is done. Simply match the 1/4" seam allowance to the edge of the fabric and sandwich all layers together. Then, just sew. As you're sewing, again just match the cut edges because the foot will guide right in this cording area. You don't have to worry about positioning that. It has a memory to it and it will just automatically stitch. Keep going around. Sometimes I pin, but often, I mold it as it goes around. When I turn this right side out here's the cording neatly sandwiched in the bag to add a touch of class. Have you ever contemplated entering one of your quilts or designs into a national show, a quilting show and wondering what the judges look for? Or, perhaps you've viewed a quilting show and wondered why one quilt received a first and the other a third. Well, today you're going to find out in this "Nancy's Corner" segment. My guest today is Klaudeen Hansen. Klaudeen is a National Quilting Association Certified Judge. You've judged quilts for many years. Yes, I have. I've been judging a long time and I've judged a lot of quilts. In fact, almost 35,000 quilts! That's a lot of beauty to look at. Yes, it has been. When we talked about this segment for Sewing with Nancy I asked you for five basic things you look for. I was amazed at how simple they are. Well, the quilting hobby, or craft, or art really composes a lot of different things. The first thing we look for when we're judging a quilt is we're looking for quilts that are clean. I would think that would be obvious, but it isn't. It seems like it should be but we do encounter a lot of quilts with cigarette odors or pet hair and amazingly, some loose threads on some of them like this pink and black one. We've kind of left a few loose extra. We see that quite often on quilts. So we think a quilt should be presented at it's best possible outlook by having it very clean and having it ready for the judges to look at. And not just out of the cedar closet. Right. So you get it aired out and get it cleaned. The second option is composition. Composition is quite important. Composition is what grabs you when you walk by a quilt. It's what makes you stop. Sometimes it makes you pull out your camera and take a look at it for a later enjoyment. But the composition needs to be balanced. One needs to have a sense of proportion and scale. Large blocks, larger quilts. Smaller blocks, smaller quilts. That type of thing. We also need frames or borders that seem to frame a quilt adequately. We like to see colors that are balanced and distributed pleasingly throughout the quilt. There are a lot of things that go into the composition of a quilt. It could be traditional or non-traditional but they do need to have many different aspects. That was a beautiful quilt that you just showed us. This quilt symbolizes... the technical quality. The next thing we look at when we're looking at quilts is we look close-up to see the expertise of the quiltmaker in putting the quilt together. Sometimes, we have to balance the degree of difficulty. Some quilts are very easy to put together. We expect them to be more perfect. The ones that are more difficult to put together small errors can certainly be forgiven in the overall look of the quilt. So there is some subjectiveness allowed here. Well, we try not to let any of that influence us especially where color is concerned. I like this bright quilt. It has interesting composition. It was a fun quilt to make. It illustrates the fact that a quilt also needs to be straight. When we talk about straight, we mean any line that is obviously intended to be straight, should be. Things should be in alignment. Borders should be straight. That doesn't mean they always are. It is one of the more difficult things to achieve on a quilt. But it's something that all quilts need. If they are curved, or scalloped around the edges then the scallops should be even. We don't mean straight, totally across the board. But most quilts have some lines in them that do need to be straight. We now have our fourth area of expertise. Then we have these two small quilts or projects to show your final criteria. My final criteria is the finishing of a quilt. When we judge quilts we often judge them in the order they're made. This one shows a knife-edge finish around the outside. It shows a quilting design. The quilting design is very important as well as the execution of that. This one has a diamond shape design that seems to make sense with the diamond motifs that are in the quilt. It all works together. This final small wall hanging shows the same design but different fabric combinations. Different fabrics and also a different quilting design to enhance that. It has a different edge finish. The binding is the most common edge finish that we see on quilts. We do want the binding to look nice on the front and the back. We want those corners to be a true 90 degrees and stitched as carefully as the rest of the quilt. The final touch! And something not to ignore, correct? Absolutely. These five tips have been very enlightening. Especially that first one, to make sure it's clean. Then when you're presenting it make certain that it's straight has composition, and the final finishing touch. Thanks for being our guest. Thank you for having me. It's wonderful to talk about something I've done. Nancy has written a fully-illustrated book entitled 12 Easy Sew Bags which includes all the information from this three-part series. It's $14.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book call 1-800-336-8373

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sewingwithnancy.com/2301 Order Item No. BK2301 12 Easy Sew Bags. Credit Card orders only. To pay by check or money order, call for details. Visit Nancy's Web site for more information on this program. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman is made possible by Baby Lock; Madeira Threads; Koala Cabinets; Clover; Amazing Designs and Klass Needles. Closed captioning funding provided by Rowenta. Sewing with Nancy is a co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public Television.