The sunray bag - part 3, completed

My sunray clutch bag is complete at last.

Having made the bag lining and the semi-rigid bag former, the next job was to make up the outer. The bag front and back were joined together with a base strip of the patterned cotton. However, the lowest sun 'ray' had been designed to overlap the base a little, so that the orange continued right to the edge. Then one side of the bag, made from a strip of the plain orange cotton, was sewn in place. (All of the sewing for this week's post was done by hand, and I now have the slightly throbbing fingertips to prove it!)

Showing the base, and the orange side

Once the orange side was sewn in, the bag outer was arranged over the bag former, to see how well it fitted. The other side, made from the print fabric, had to be attached further out than I had expected. Fortunately I had left very generous seam allowances everywhere, just in case.

The yellow thread basting shows the original expected sewing line

The print side was completely sewn to the bag front, but only to the lower half of the bag back - this was so that the former could be slipped into position.

Attaching the print side

To hold everything in place, the seam allowances were stitched onto the cotton layer of the former. Adding the cotton turned out to have been an inspired move - not bad for someone who was making it up as she went along!

Interior shot showing the seam allowances whipped in place

I stitched the upper side edge of the bag back to the former, and then joined the side to the back using ladder stitch. Next, I folded over the top edges of the bag and sewed them to the former. Finally, I turned under the upper edge of the lining, and sewed that onto the outer with tiny overcast stitches.

Top view, closed and open

And here is the completed bag, front and back.

Front view

The back, with the design machine-sewn on

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, and I learned a lot in the process of making it. So I'm counting it as a win for both the 'details' and the 'self-drafted' goals that I set myself mid-year. Oh, and it used up some stash fabric as well.

I seem to be using stash rather than the listed fabrics

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!

Mystery project

As in, it's a mystery to me, too! Usually when I make something, either I'm using a pattern or I've worked out all the details before I start - sketches, dimensions, notes etc. This time, it's very much making it up as I go along.

I've wanted to make a 1930s-themed clutch bag to use with my dress version of Vogue 2859 for some time. To me, few things sum up that decade like the sunburst design.

Pye radio, 1931 (image © Victorian and Albert Museum, London)

Browsing through images of 1930s bags online I came across this, and thought that the shape would work well with the sunburst motif. I experimented with variations on size and proportions until I came up with a pleasing shape which could hold everything I need to put in an evening bag.

1930s clutch bag, image found on Google

For once, I knew that I had the perfect fabrics in my stash. Years ago I bought a fat quarter of a quilting cotton with an orange branch print, for no reason other than I liked the design. I’d also bought a plain orange fat quarter to go with it. It’s not a 1930s print, but the colours are ideal for this project, and go well with the dress. Also in the stash I found a length of plain teal cotton (no idea where it came from!) which works wonderfully for the lining.

I drew the design onto a stashed piece of cream cotton, and thread-basted over the lines. Then I basted this onto a piece of the print fabric.

The bag outline and rays thread-basted in reverse

The rays were cut out from the plain orange with generous seam allowances, machined onto the print along one edge, then flipped into place and pressed. The excess fabric was trimmed off the seam.

Sewing on the rays

Then the other edge was folder under and pressed, and the excess trimmed off. This edge was hand sewn.

The rays completed

The back of the bag will just consist of the print fabric backed with the cream. However to hold the layers together, and to echo the design on the front, I machined them together using a mirror image of the sunray design.

The inside of the back, showing the complete design

It's barely visible on the right side, but holds everything together

Sewing the sunrays required more precision than I can manage on the treadle machine, so instead I used Maud, my 1917 hand-crank. Yesterday was a lovely sunny day, and as we will soon reach the time of year where the sun isn't high enough to come over the neighbouring house, I took advantage of my 'portable' machine (I use the word loosely!) to work where I could enjoy the direct sunlight.

Sewing in the sun

Once the outer parts were done, it was on to the lining. It consists of two layers of the teal cotton: one full size and one smaller, to create pockets.

The completed lining

As is obvious from the lining shape, the bag in going to have a flat base, and side panels. It is also going to have a zip along the top. I have several books which include instructions for making bags, but all of them are flat 'envelope' styes with just a front and a back. They also all have front flaps, which wouldn't really work with the sunray design I wanted. Hence the 'mystery project' title - I have most of the individual elements, but I now need to consider how I'm going to put them together. Gulp.