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Handbags are a hot fashion trend and one of the most popular projects to sew. My guest and I have designed and stitched over a hundred or more bags during the past few years. Through experimenting we've learned to streamline the steps and discover the ways to give the bags a designer look. I'd like to welcome back Eileen Roche embroidery and bag expert. Eileen, our viewers know that when you're on the docket, embroidery is the topic. We have some smart handbags that are going to really excite your viewers. Smart embroidery accents are featured at the corners. Attaching the straps and even the bag closures are completely stitched in the embroidery hoop. The end product is "Designer Handbags." "Designer Handbags" 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

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You could also look in your fabric store for outdoor fabric for cushions or pillows for outdoors, it's thicker. It works really well and the life of the bag will last forever. If you're using cottons which are the most prevalent fabrics around I do like to back the fabric with interfacing. Before you can back it, though you should really consider the pattern pieces. You can choose templates that make bags or patterns that create bags. Just make certain that the bag has a corner detail. Then I chose, for this particular sample to cut it out of this template. I cut a front and a back out of cotton and then added fusible interfacing. Just one layer of interfacing of many to come! Right, it's the foundation that really creates the shape of the bag. We have three foundation suggestions for you. It may be a little unique, especially this first one. I think you'll find this in the upholstery section of your fabric store. It's called a headliner fabric. It's used to re-upholster cars. This is in the ceiling area of your car! It's kind of a foam backed fabric. It's very interesting. It's soft, and yet it's got some body to it. If you don't have a fabric such as this I like to use a combination of a cotton canvas and a fleece two together, or a craft interfacing that's stiff. You can see the stiffness. It really holds the shape. Pressing can form permanent creases. Machine baste that inner stabilizer to your fabric. Then we proceed from there. Right, and one of the next steps is to think about straps. You have to make your straps before you add them to the bag so that would be your next step. You have several options here. This is a fusible interfacing, perforated to make a strap. You press the interfacing to the fabric then you press along the perforations. On this sample, you can see that it's been pressed. You cover the raw edges with ribbon or trim and presto, you have strap. Webbing is available in many fabric stores. You can dress it up by adding a length of ribbon. We like to glue it down first and then topstitch it along both edges and then voil, you've got a pretty strap that's sturdy. For a very interesting designer strap if you are an embroiderer, this is a beautiful strap. This is really a designer detail, you're right Nancy. It takes a little bit of time but I think it's well worth it. This is an embroidery. You have the embroidery in your hoop because you're going to embroider several units matching them together. It's actually three repeats on this strap to fill the whole strap. I have stitched my entire design of the first design. We have stitch marks, which are these black threads. They are placing a positioning mark for the needle when we go to rehoop and position our next design. Those stitch marks are available on many machines. They are. They're added like an embroidery. That's right, you can add it in the editing feature of many machines, or some designs come with that. You'll remove those stitch marks later, so they'll be gone. You can see those stitch marks right on the LCD screen on your machine. That's right. When it's time to hoop for the second design I literally slide my fabric and position the needle right over the existing stitch mark. If I line it up and travel through the design stitch by stitch, on the right and left side then I know that I'm square in the hoop and that my second repeat, my second design will match perfectly and it will be an invisible seam. Those are the steps of creating the basis for your designer bag, working with the right fabric a template or a pattern for cutting out the fabric and then making a stabilizer base, fusible interfacing and then another layer of stiff interfacing. Create straps, if you need two straps or one strap depending on your pattern. Now it's time to create some designer details of embroidery in the corner. Embroidered corner appliqus are the focal point of our designer bags. The appliqu designs create the shaping, plus add style to the bag. In other words, it's a smart embroidery. Here are the steps of adding corner trims with your embroidery machine. These corner trims can be quite detailed or simple. We have two options here where you can see the very detailed corner units. On this bag, they're a little bit more streamlined but very attractive and give shaping as well. They're appliqus. Generally when you make an appliqu you always need to have the appliqu fabric. That fabric design and shape is part of an embroidery unit. You stitch the outline shape of four corners plus four strap connectors, which we'll do later to hold the straps in place, right on the fabric. Eileen's going to show you how. I've selected my largest hoop and cut my fabric the width of the hoop plus some extra length because I'll need a second hooping. I already have loaded four repeats of my strap connector. Now I'll go and retrieve the corner trim. That's on the USB stick. Once I bring that in, I touch "set," and I'm going to move it to the top of the hoop to leave space for the second one. I can just hit "copy" and "paste" and pull down the second one. While I do this, I'm going to mirror image it so that I don't wind up with four rights or three rights, something like that. The point is to get two corners for each side. That's right. You'll notice that there are letters on the corners. That's "S" and "B." "S" is for side and "B" is for bottom. That helps you when it becomes time to actually stitch the bag. I'm ready to sew. I'll press "go" and stitch the first color which will be the first strap connector. It just does the outline of the shape. As Eileen is stitching this I'll show you a finished hoop. We used a large hoop. You can see four connectors and two corners with the "S and "B," so you know the corners. Then you take this out of the hoop. We need to stitch two more corner units. You pop it out advance the fabric, rehoop it and stitch just two more corner units. I think you get that idea if you work with an embroidery machine. Then cut or trim off the sides. This way, you get just perfect shapes and sizes. Now, to create the unit Eileen is going to be embroidering on the actual fabric, and applying the appliqu. I retrieved my corner trim design from the USB stick. In fact, I've already stitched color one which is that right angle, right on my stabilizer. As I go into the second color it's time to add my bag body. I'm using a water activated adhesive tear-away stabilizer. I'm just placing a little bit of water in the hoop. I'll position my fabric right on that outline. I want to make sure that the right corners are aligned. I'll press "go." I want to make sure everything is nice and smooth. Nancy, I call this hands-on embroidery. Sure. It's not hand-embroidery but you most definitely want to stay with your machine and stitch it. Hold the body, because this is a stiff interfacing and it has a tendency to want to pop out of the hoop. But once you have these couple stitches down you can let go of the body of the bag. Right now, it's stitching that corner so you're going to use that as the shaping of it. That's what creates those perfect corners. All four corners will be identical so you're going to have a perfectly square bottom on the bag. Now that this portion of the design is complete this tells me where to lay down my appliqu fabric that we just prepared. I'll position that in the hoop. Again, you want to make sure everything is lined up the outer edge is lined up. I do focus more on the curves. You know, sometimes we don't trim absolutely perfectly but this portion of the design is what's going to be visible on the bag. It's aligning with your stitching. That's right, it's stitching to stitching. I'll lower the presser foot, and travel on. I often find that using the eraser end of a pencil to hold my appliqus in place during this process is very helpful and it keeps my fingers out of harms' way. We stitch this design, this color. After this, it will add the really pretty satin stitching and the decorative bean stitches the run stitches in the middle. You're getting it aligned so the corner units can be sewn later on. They'll be exact. So, no matter what pattern you use or template you use, it works, because this is so accurate. Digital files produce expectable results every single time. You know what you're going to get before you even stitch it. While Eileen continues her embroidery I want to point out that any embroidery if you're using computerized embroidery make sure that you use a lightweight bobbin thread. For your machine, I like to use rayon thread in the needle. I work with embroidery needles so that the stitches are even and I don't have any breakage of stitches. You do have to do a little preparation before you do the set up for the embroidery. You can walk away. When we were making the samples we walked away from the machine during some of these parts because now that large zigzag stitch that it's sewing is making a foundation for the satin stitch. It's firmly holding the bag front into the hoop so you don't have to worry at this point of it popping out. Of course, you know, things can happen so it is always best to stay with your machine! But we did sneak away for a few minutes while it did the satin stitching. I'm going to show you on the finished sample made with a slightly different thread color what the remaining stitches will be. Right now, Eileen's sample is stitching the satin stitch along the edge a beautiful, even satin stitching. Then there are running stitchings little scoop running stitches, echoing the outer design. That important first stitch was a corner unit to give that gusset shape to the bag. What you're going to do on all four corners on your bag is to trim exactly along that stitching line because what's going to happen after we show you how to assemble the bag it's going to be sewn. That's how the crisp corners will be formed. Smart embroideries are not just for bag corners. Add straps with appliqu strap connectors. There's no doubt where the straps and appliqus will be positioned. The machine stitches out the exact location. It's easy to add designer touches when there's no guess work in the sewing or the embroidery process. We'll take another quick look at the strap areas. We have options. Here's a rather simplified option, a more detailed option. We're going to show you a third one that's even faster. But all the processes are the same. Eileen, maybe you'd like to walk them through the process. I've brought up a single strap connector design that you stitch in a 5x7 hoop. The first color is the placement guide which is horizontal and vertical straight lines. You use that to place your bag in the hoop. After stitching that on the tear-away stabilizer you then go to the next color of the design which is actually an outline of the appliqu and a square box that designates where the webbing or the end of your strap will go. After that stitches on the bag you then place the end of the webbing right in that box and stitch the next color which is the tack down of the webbing. Once that's complete, you lay your appliqu piece over the outline, and tack down the appliqu piece. Of course, the beautiful stitches finish it. The functional stitches come first. The first functional stitch is that placement line that's right on the stabilizer. I'm going to place this on my table and then show you how you position the bag. I have the center marked with a pin. I just folded my bag in half. Here's the center pin. I'll align it right at the horizontal mark. But before I do that on my stabilizer I'm going to just activate it, just kind of a fun way. Then, place the center pin at the vertical line. The top of the bag is placed at the horizontal line. Give it a little press, a hand press more than a finger press. Then I will be ready to put this into my machine to do the embroidery. It sticks to the stabilizer. Eileen is using a larger hoop. She has the bag in place and has stitched the second design. You might want to point out that second design. That is the square box that designates where the end of the strap goes. It's also the outline of the appliqu section itself. Also, that's holding the bag front to the stabilizer so everything is nice and secure at this point. I then take the end of my strap and you know, you could use a glue stick if you like but I'm going to go ahead and move that needle over to the first color and lower the presser foot. I'll use the end of that eraser to hold the strap while it is tacked down to the bag itself. You put the end of the strap right at the placement line. You do, and if it's an inch wide strap you center it in the box. If it's a little wider well then it would be centered over the outline. These are some nice heavy stitches. They're called bean stitches, which is a triple run so it's securely going to hold that strap to the bag. I don't think that strap will ever separate itself from the bag. It's important, if you're making a bag like this to do the corners first because then you don't have to contend with the straps. Right, adding the strap is the last step. The fun part about it is, once the strap is on you've just about done the bag you just have three seams to sew. We have the end of our strap tacked down. We still know exactly where our appliqu piece goes so we'll position that. Again, I'm matching stitching to stitching. I'll use the eraser to hold it in place. You most certainly don't want to get your fingers underneath the needle danger zone! If it doesn't catch it quite in the running around it most certainly will in the outline when it gets to the zigzag. I just kind of help it along. Right now, it doesn't look as attractive as it will but that's the functional part of it. That's right. Our next color will finish this beautiful design. You're going to start the satin stitch that will go around the edge. Soon after that there will be some fill-in stitches. We'll just let Eileen's machine stitch that strap into place. It works by itself. I'll show you what it will look like when it's completed. The functional part has been completed. Then there will be the satin stitch that will go around the edge. Then those echo stitches giving a compatible look to the corner units. You repeat the process for the other side of the bag so that now you have designer touches in the strap connector area as well as in the bag corners. We spend a lot of time on Sewing with Nancy talking about sewing techniques or tips often bypassing the history behind the fabric. Indigo fabrics and dyes have a rich history and continue to be part of many cultures. In South Africa, this fabric is known as shweshwe. Elizabeth Schell with Marula Imports is originally from South Africa. She will inform us about this historic fabric. Elizabeth joins us via Skype. Elizabeth, how are you today? Hi, Nancy, I'm very well. Thank you so much for having me today. I'm very excited to tell you and your viewers about the fabrics that I import from South Africa known as shweshwe. Shweshwe fabrics, I'm going to show our viewers a little bit about what shweshwe prints look like. I mentioned, you can see some indigos, some reds browns, blues, purples and oranges. They have a unique look. Give us a little bit about what shweshwe fabric is. Nancy, shweshwe is 100% cotton fabric. It's available in a wide variety of different prints and beautiful, vibrant colors. Indigo is probably the most popular color and by far the best selling, also. Shweshwe is manufactured in South Africa by a company called Da Gama Textiles.

Nancy

When I'm handling this the first thing I notice is that it's very stiff.

Elizabeth

Yes, the fabric comes heavily starched. The reason for this is that the production process has remained much the same since the 19th century. Initially, the fabrics were starched to preserve them during the long shipping voyages across the ocean. Today, we identify authentic shweshwe by the starchy feel and also by the backstamps on the back of the fabric. The starch does wash out so after washing, the fabric becomes beautifully soft. It's really wonderful to work with.

Nancy

Here's a piece that I washed and it really is very pliable. Really, the color, you can see when I washed it the water was kind of starchy. You mentioned the identifying features on the back. This is what I find fascinating. Why don't you tell us more about this, Elizabeth? It says "Three Cats" on the back of my fabric.

Elizabeth

Yes, the shweshwe trademarks are authenticated by the backstamps on the back of the fabric. There are four different ranges that you'd want to look for. Three Cats is one of them. There's Three Leopards. There's a Toto Six Star. And more recently, the new Coral Tree range is called Coral Tree Quilting. Users are very skilled at identifying authentic shweshwe by touch, by smell, by taste and also identifying the appropriate backstamp. This is just to make sure that they're buying an authentic shweshwe and not a reproduction or fake cloth. You know, it's not as wide as the fabrics we're accustomed to working with maybe like a cotton fabric. It's not 45 inches wide, it's 36 inches wide. That has to do with the production. Give us a little hint how shweshwe is produced. Shweshwe is a discharge printed cotton fabric. What this means is that the cotton is dyed using a synthetic dye. Then it is passed underneath copper rollers which have intricate patterns etched onto the surface. A weak acid solution seeps through the copper rollers onto the fabric and this results in the beautiful prints that you see. The rollers are only 36 inches wide which explains to us why shweshwe is only 36 inches wide.

Nancy

Those rollers are so beautiful. Just those placed next to each other they really show the beauty that has been transferred to the fabric. Shweshwe obviously means something and has a terminology. Give us a little history of that term. There are two popular explanations for where the word shweshwe derived it's meaning from. The first is that shweshwe derived its meaning after French missionaries presented the King of Basotho whose name was King Moshoeshoe, with the gift of indigo or printed fabric in the 1840s. This established a cloth preference amongst the people which still prevails today. The second explanation is that the word shweshwe comes from the sound that the fabric makes when the woman wearing the clothing their skirts make a swishing sound, hence the name shweshwe. Personally, I like the second explanation the best. Yes, I like that explanation, too. The colors are beautiful. In our country, in the United States we could use this for traditional African costuming or you sent me this really attractive quilt.

Elizabeth

Yes, shweshwe can really be used for anything that you would normally use 100% cotton for. It is 100% cotton fabric so you can mix it in with other cottons, too. You don't have to make your project exclusively using shweshwe. You can be creative and mix it in with other cotton fabrics too. You just need to keep in mind that shweshwe needs to be thoroughly washed to take care of any bleeding and shrinkage ahead of time. I do have specific washing instructions that people can follow. Okay, I like the cultural part of it. I think that has some of the great history because it's been manufactured for many years, correct? That is correct. It's been manufactured since the 19th century. So, a long time. Thank you for joining us, Elizabeth and telling us about shweshwe fabrics and for thinking of some projects for us to work with. This is really an interesting thing to incorporate. I appreciate your help. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, Nancy, I appreciate the opportunity. For more information on shweshwe fabric

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nancyzieman.com where you'll find everything related to Sewing with Nancy. The current 52 shows are available for you to watch online. All Nancy's Corner guests and topics are listed. You'll find more sewing and quilting information when you read my blog! Thanks to Eileen Roche for being with us for our first program of "Designer Handbags." We'll be back next time for its follow-up program. Bye for now. Nancy and Eileen have prepared a CD entitled "Designer Handbags" that includes the instructions designer techniques and embroideries for the bags featured in this two-part series. For ordering information, call 1-800-336-8373

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sewingwithnancy.com/2517 Order item number CD00800, "Designer Handbags." Visit Nancy's website at nancyzieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman

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