The sunray bag - part 2, the structure

I'm back from my Scottish jaunt, and working on my sunray clutch bag again.

Having made the front and back panels, I then set about the element which will give the whole bag its shape. I want the front and back to be rigid, and also the base and the lower section of the sides - marked in red on the drawing below. The upper part of the sides, marked in blue, will just consist of the outer and lining fabric layers, to allow the bag to taper towards the zip at the top.

The bag design

After a browse round my local fabric shop, I settled on a pelmet stiffener which is sticky on both sides, with the glue covered with peel-off paper. I thought that this would be easier to use than iron-on buckram, which has glue on both sides activated by heat, as I could work on one side at a time.

First, I drew out the shape on the stiffener. It wasn't quite wide enough, so I had to add sections for the sides. Then, to made it easier to work with and to provide a way of joining it all together, I glued plain white cotton onto both sides.

I covered the inside first. I folded the stiffener to shape, and scored along the fold lines so that I could remove the paper one section at a time. I started with the base, then did the other four sections.

The inner cotton layer, from the outside . . .

. . . and from the inside

Next, I covered the outside, making sure that the cotton was arranged to go over the folds smoothly.

The outer layer, with excess allowed at the base folds

I used a rotary cutter to remove the excess fabric, except at the four corners. These I sewed up, to create the bag shape.

Starting to look slightly bag-shaped

Then I trimmed off the excess.

The seams trimmed down

The lining was made up with fabric panels up the sides, and two panels holding the zip were sewn along the top. To make sure that it stays in place, I secured it to the corners of the base and the top of the side panels of the stiffener (hence the blue threads in the photo above).

The lining, showing the zip

The lining, showing the side panels

I was concerned about the bulk of the seam allowances of the stiffened shape, so I stitched them down to the cotton layer. Even though it is glued in place, there was just enough give to pick up a few threads to sew into.

Seam allowances sewn down

Next, constructing the outer bag and bringing it all together!