Sewing With Nancy

Handbags are the feature of this Sewing with Nancy mini-series with the common denominator being easy! In this third episode of "12 Easy Sew Bags" you'll learn to create the final four options. The collection includes classic shapes and styles that can go with pretty much anything from jeans to business wear. They're simple, stylish, versatile pieces. Let's begin with an adjustable strap option. You might like a shoulder bag or during other times, a shorter strap. Both options are available on one easy bag with easy-to-sew fabric strap slides. It's a clever way to personalize a bag. "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. If you were able to join us for the first two programs of this three-part series you know that you can work with any bag pattern template or tote pattern to make the bags personalized. That's the same case with the adjust-a-strap using fabric slides to change the length of the strap. To work with this the key will be the interfacing that you'll use for the strap itself. We've used perforated interfacing made for straps. It comes in two widths. The narrow 5/8" width, or the 1" width. In each case, you're going to cut two lengths. Two lengths that are 36". Then you'll have a leftover piece of the fusible interfacing that you'll use for the slide portion of the strap. The fabric is cut the same width and the same length as the fusible interfacings so in this instance, it's 2" x 36". In the narrower width, it's 1-1/4" x 36". Just fuse, meeting the wrong side of the fabric and the fusible side of the interfacing and press together. I'm sure you've used products like this in the past. They just kind of save time, make things accurate. After pressing the interfacing to the wrong side then just fold the fabric along the lengthwise perforations and press so that you have a nice even size. Now, to position the fabric slides we need just one quick mark. The mark is the center point. I'm meeting end-to-end and then with the tip of the iron or even just finger press that area. So either way, you're going to do a marking. I've used a contrast fabric to create the fabric slide. Again, press the ends to the middle but then do one more pressing. Press the folds to meet each other and then edge stitch so that you have a narrower strip of fabric. Now to measure, we're going to use the unpressed width of the strap as a guide. Sometimes it's just easy to do a quick measurement by eyeballing. You're going to make the slides about a generous 1/4" longer. Just a generous 1/4" or 3/8" if you really want to measure-- longer than the width of the unfolded strap. Then flip this over and match right below the pressed fold. Right below that fold match the cut edge to the cut edge. You'll have to pin this together so that you can see you have a little gap in the slide. On this next sample, I've stitched along the edges and then you refold it and then press. Press it, as you did originally. After you have created a slide on both straps then topstitch or edgestitch. This sample has been edgestitched along the fold across the top, and along the fold. Now stack the slides. Here I have two shorter lengths. You'd stack them together so that the slides are going toward the middle. You can guess what's going to happen here. You're going to slide one strap through each slide. Then the fabric, because it has a little texture to it will hold right where you'd like to have it adjusted. You can use your favorite application technique. The favorite way of adding it to your tote or handbag whether it's with D-rings or O-rings or attach it directly to the bag. But then of course, you just saw how it works. It does stick to itself so you have an easy way of adding some personality with the adjust-a-strap just created with the fusible interfacing and a little sewing know-how. This next "Easy Sew Bag" features a remake. The original bag's only closure was a snap at the top yet I often wished it had a more secure closure. Never one to let a little inconvenience get in my way I decided to add a zipper, what a novel thought! See how combining zipper and ribbon can make the contents of a bag or tote more protected with a little sewing savvy! If you look at this bag you will see that the snap closure is not the only way of keeping this bag closed. We used ribbon and a traditional dressmaking zipper to create this zip it closed closure. You can add this to any bag that you may like and I'll show you the way to work with it. Since it's sometimes difficult to work with heavy-duty zippers to sew through them I like to use standard dressmaker's zippers and showcasing or adding on both sides, framing it with ribbon. Now this ribbon is about, let's see, 3/4" wide. Sometimes you can use 1/2" wide or even up to 1" wide ribbon. If you're working with zipper by the yard which I happen to use I cut it the length I would like the zipper to be. Sometimes I have it the width of the opening or maybe up to 2" wider on each side or longer on each side. Then the ribbon is cut the length of the zipper. Notice that I bartacked where I'd like the zipper to end and sandwich it on both sides. Then just straight stitch creating a frame. Now measure the end of each zipper so you know how wide to cut the ribbon. This measures 1-1/2" so I'm going to add-- to make this 3" plus 1/2". So, 3-1/2" is the width of each end piece. Then I'd place one on each end and topstitch down. Another simple step. Now to make this a finished look I'd simply meet the short ends together. Stitch with a 1/4" hence that extra 1/2" that was added. On this side, I did the stitching and then we just flip it and you can topstitch. Now you could just leave it like this. You'd just need to secure the ribbons together. Another option is to fold the ribbons in a V-point and then do the topstitching. So you're just going to manipulate the ribbon whichever way you'd like the look to be. Here's our finished decorative zipper. Now, you can either pin this inside the bag or you can use double-sided basting tape. Sometimes to save time and security I place double-sided basting tape inside the bag. Just tear it off and then remove the paper covering. Now you can sew through this. Find the center of the zipper, crease it, finger press it and meet it the center of the bag and position. Again pins would work just fine, as well. One side is positioned. Here's a close-up of stitching the zipper to the inside of the bag. You could follow an existing stitching line or you could create a new topstitching line. Whatever you'd do to one side of the zipper you'd do to the other. On this finished bag, when we look inside you can see that this has been stitched to the top and you have a clever closure and a way to customize the bag. A handbag is an ideal palette to feature embroidery. Highlight seasonal embroideries such as this gingko design or consider adding geometric, paisley or even abstract embroideries. For those with computerized embroidery machines it's easy to get carried away with this "Easy Sew Bag" option. When I embroidered this bag I wanted to make certain that the embroideries were placed in the corner at the top corner, the lower corner and then were mirror imaged exactly on the other side. To do this, I use stitched outlines to position it. Now some you may have used templates in the past. I like using templates for positioning embroideries. But sometimes, if I have to do a mirror image to get things identically shaped or placed I don't always get the best results. That's just me. But sometimes you can just place a template on. Start stitching at the center of this target and then you'll get a nice corner position. For this bag, I'll show you how I created the outlines and the embroidery. First of all, I decided where I wanted the corner of my embroidery to be. This bag has a gusset shaping hence that little cut out section. I decided I wanted it to be 2" from the cut edge so that the embroidery started in this area and it would not interfere with the seam. There'd be a little fabric around the edges so it would be highlighted nicely. So with 2" in mind, I went to an embroidery that had geometric shapes. As I mentioned, they're just outlines that you stitch. I chose two stitch outlines. If you're wondering, "What is Nancy talking about?" Just give me a little time. I chose that 2" outline as an embroidery. These are embroideries. They're not decorative. They're just functional I decided to choose this 2" square outline. I placed it on a jump stick or a little drive whatever you place into your computer or sewing machine. I also chose a larger rectangle. I chose the biggest rectangle I could find. It's this one that's at the top, number "50" to give me kind of the shape and positioning of my bag itself. These are embroideries, so I've placed them on a stick as I mentioned, a media stick. I have it in my computerized embroidery unit. I'm going to transfer those two designs plus the embroidery designs to my machine. You could also edit it in your computer, if you'd like. Here's that largest design, and I'm going to set it and just move it down to the corner a little bit more. That's to give me approximately the shape of my outer bag. Then I'm going to import the smaller 2" square. This serves to position that gusset area and the point where I'd like the embroidery to begin. As I mentioned, I wanted it to start 2" from the corner so I'm lining it up with the proverbial outer edge of the bag. That upper corner is where I'd like the embroidery to begin. So these are embroideries. I'll add the decorative embroidery. This is what I chose to show you today. It's one large embroidery for a corner. It's going in the wrong direction so I'm going to rotate it, and rotate it once more It should come out kind of in the right area. But it's certainly not near that corner of the bag. So using the touch screen I'll move this down to the 2" mark because that's where I measured and decided in advance that I'd like the embroidery to start. Now I'm ready to do the sewing. The embroidery is unique in this instance because the first two steps, the first two colors are outlines. If we look at the screen again you'll see that it shows that black thread is in there and the first stitching is the large outline. The second stitching will be the small outline. So I have, in my embroidery unit a sticky-backed stabilizer, or water activated stabilizer. This is the water activated type. I'm going to lower the presser foot. The first thing that I'm going to sew is the outer edge. So we're going to push the sewing and it's going to transfer the designs into place. What it's going to sew, first of all is the stitch outline. Just black stitching. So this is certainly not the decorative part. It's just for placement. So we'll let this stitch the large outline as well as the small 2" block. When we come back I'll show you how to position the bag into place. As you can see, both of the first embroidery steps have been sewn on the stabilizer. It allows me to position with water-activated stabilizer-- I've already dampened the stabilizer with a sponge-- Position the fabric. I did change the thread to the first thread color. Now I can lower the presser foot and start sewing the beautiful design. Now the stabilizer has the positioning tools on it allowing me to give that design starting exactly 2" from the corner. Here's the finished sample of one of the designs that has been stitched exactly 2" from the corner. Then you can sew the other one by simply mirror imaging the designs and you'll have perfect placement. Swapping the contents of a bag from one to another with ease was the inspiration for my last "Easy Sew Bag." Learn how to create the bag within a bag in other words, to create a switchable bag organizer. Use these dimensions and instructions to customize a switchable bag to fit any of your handbags. Whether you've created one of the bags that I'm making in the series or have some at home where you'd like an organizer this organizer will fit in a variety of sizes. It has substance to it. It's not going to fold under the weight of what you have stored inside the bag. Whether it's a cell phone, credit cards, money make-up or keys, it has enough weight to it yet it's bendable. To make this switchable organizer we used the shaping that's often used for the base of a tote or a bag. This is a stitchable plastic stabilizer. We've used this throughout the program and we just used the full sheet size. It happens to be 5-1/4" x 20". That was the main pattern size that we're working with. The zipper portion of the organizer the zipper pocket I should say-- You're going to be cutting two of these 5-1/4" x 20" sizes. Just the size of that stabilizer. I have them out of two different colors. One of them, you're going to press under about a 1/2" seam allowance. And the other one, you're going to press in half. You'll see that happening in just a few minutes. But to create the first zipper we have a 20" long zipper with multiple heads. You can use a single pull draw zipper. Overlap the fabric onto the zipper and topstitch. You can't get any simpler than that. You're just topstitching the zipper down. Then, that second zipper pocket piece you're going to press in half. Do a little finger pressing and place it over the end so that you're matching edge to edge so that you have a double pocket area. This last sample shows that we've stitched right down the center. You can find the center by folding it in half to create one of the first pockets. Set this aside. So now you have the zipper portion. The base is made out of a double the width of that stabilizer. That's 10-1/2" x 20". You'll find all of the dimensions in the reference material that accompanies today's program. You can fold this in half, folding in half the pressmark so it equals the size of that original zipper pocket. You might guess you're going to place the zipper pocket which I had below, on half of the stabilizer. We've stitched the top of the zipper along the fold. Now here's that stabilizer. We're going to just tuck it underneath the second half. You could make double zipper pockets. You could add pleated pockets, which we have in our sample and that sample size was cut 8" x 30". You could make this any size you'd like. This is just to give you a guideline. Then again, fold this in half. The sample below shows that we've created pleats just by making equidistant 3" wide pleats with about a 1/2" gusset in the side. Make these any size you'd like. Really, it's just as a guideline. We'll fold this down making the base a little bit more visible to you. Place the pleated section along the edge and topstitch all these layers. So you have zipper pockets and pleated pockets. To do the finishing touches we're going to fold this in half. So here's our sewn section. Since you can sew right to it, you just fold this in half and zigzag along all of the edges. After you've zigzagged along the edges then you can use your favorite technique of adding bias tape. You could add a binding technique. You could fold over zipper-- not zipper, excuse me, ribbon-- as we have here just to finish the edges. You may want to even add a key fob at the end if you'd like to hold some keys into place. You can see this is bendable in any way that you'd like to create it. It's just a system of having a base fabric some interesting pocket shapes and sizes and you have a switchable organizer. It's time for the "Nancy's Corner" segment of our program. I'd like to encourage you to become a blanketeer! Not a Musketeer, but a blanketeer to make blankets for those in need. Christine Popenhagen is one of the 400 coordinators of Project Linus. She's been with the organization for over 10 years and is here to share with us how all of us who sew, quilt and perhaps knit or crochet can make blankets for children ages zero to 18 for those who have been ill or traumatized. What a wonderful service for those of us who sew and quilt and for your great volunteerism, Christine. Thanks very much, and thanks for having me today. To tell others about Project Linus we have to give a little bit of the history because this started in Colorado. That's right. It started in Colorado in 1995 with one blanket that someone crocheted and took to a child in need. It's grown to 400 chapters across the country and over two million blankets given away to children. I think it's 2.6 million! That's a phenomenal number of quilts to give away. The sizes that we can make of these quilts they're kind of specific. They can range in size from about 36" x 36" all the way up to twin size. But our favorite size, the one we use the most is about 40" or 45" by 60" a typical crib size batting. In order that you get the size that your chapter needs in your part of the country go to their Web site, or contact their coordinator and find out what sizes they prefer. They may have special needs for special children. I went to the Web site and printed out the pages for ProjectLinus.org For each state, there's a link. For whatever state you live in you can go to that link, find the coordinator and then the needs that are there. There's some criteria. The blankets have to be kid friendly colors. That's right. Homemade. They can be knitted. They can be crocheted, hand-tied. They can be machine quilted, appliqud, embroidered, serged. That's right, fleece, flannel. They can be most anything. They do have to be made of all new materials because of hospital regulations. They have to be made in a smoke-free environment and stored in a smoke-free environment. They need to be washable because a lot of these blankets are washed many, many times. Every month you donate blankets as the coordinator in your area. Yes, we do. We donate about 400 blankets every month. Most of our blankets go to hospitalized children. But, across the country there are different needs. So they may go to many other places. Some blankets are given to the children of deployed military people. Certainly. The blanket that you're holding, Christine you have a little label that goes on the blanket. That's right. It says Project Linus and gives the organization who may have made it but then tells where it came from. It's really a wonderful thing. This is a blanket that's made for a neonatal intensive care unit. Yes, it is. In Madison, Wisconsin, where we are we have two newborn intensive care units in town. We supply them with these blankets. People might think that these blankets need to be tiny but in fact these are about 45" x 45" to cover the isolettes to keep the babies warm. Certainly. That's why you need to check with your local chapter to see what sizes are best for them. You told me a very interesting story about the creator of the blanket with the appliqud frogs. It's worthy to tell our audience about this because of the interest that this has. It has interesting appliqus but there are two gifts here. Yes, there are. The person that made this blanket has made us 256 blankets this past year. She is wheelchair bound. She recruits other people from her community to help her with this. Some of them may cut out the shapes or they may do other parts of the job. So it's really amazing. She's an amazing woman. Not only is the gift to the recipient of this the child who needs it but also for this woman giving her a lot of purpose and to use her sewing and quilting skills. All of us find that we get much more out of this than we give. I think that's often true when people volunteer. You expect to give something to the people but in fact, they give to you. That's right. Our encouragement is that you work with your local Project Linus area. Again,

go to

ProjectLinus.org and you will find the sheets that you can print out to be a blanketeer. You'll find all the criteria that's listed there. Go to your state, click on it for a contact. The popular blanket sizes are about 45" x 60". It has to be of new fabric, smoke-free environment and kid-friendly colors. I encourage each of you to make something for someone you don't know and give it away. The gift will be in the giving. Christine, thank you so much for being our guest on "Nancy's Corner." Well, thank you. I enjoyed it. Congratulations on all of your successes and continued great success in your work. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now. 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

or visit our Web site at

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.