(La) Rue the Day December 21, 2006

By Diva Phyllis
It’s a funny thing about sewing and me - when I get outside my zone, even though I have years of sewing experience, I still feel that newbie anxiety. This is the first project I’ve ever done in leather, and I can’t thank Diva Els and Diva Ann enough for their wonderful recent posts on making leather bags.

The La Rue bag is perfect as a first leather project - it’s simple (only 2 sides) and it presents a LOT of embellishment opportunities. This is made from dark bittersweet chocolate lambskin and it has a silver silk dupioni lining. Dark brown and silver is one of my favorite color combinations - think of the wrapper on a Hershey Bar. The leather came from an EBay merchant named Leatherwise and it was really easy to sew. Of course, you need a Teflon foot and a leather needle. I used Magna-Tac to glue the seams, and the hardware is all nickel plated. Truthfully, I lucked out with the hardware - I found the chain and the rings at Windsor Button in Boston, and the chain on the tassel is a tiny piece left over from my Chanel jacket. Years ago my mother gave me some vintage nickel grommets so I was all set there. I think matching the hardware on a bag is the biggest challenge, and Els’ recent post of canibalizing old handbag hardware is a brilliant idea.

The idea for the strap came from a Gucci bag owned by my friend Stina. Originally I wanted to do two pieces of chain parallel, but it was too heavy even though it looked amazing. I’ll have to size up this bag into a true tote and give that a try. The studs came from Mister Nailhead, also on Ebay, and do check them out because they have a super “Buy It Now” deal that gets you 500 pieces of really cool mixed studs. I haven’t used every style they sent me - there were 10 total in the bag, both nickel and brass.

Did do a few pattern and construction changes: replaced the binding with a simple curved facing, a horizontal center seam was added to the lining to enable me to edge stitch all the way around the top edges, and instead of the zipper pocket I just did a very simple open cell phone & pen pocket.

The armhole was widened 1/2 inch, which is enough for me. I cut an L-shaped slash into the pattern down the middle of the armhole and slide the piece to the left 1/2 inch. Then I added a gentle curve to soften the right angle, which actually made it look more like the original Patricia Field bag.

The tassel is embellished with hot fix Swarovski crystals in mixed colors of red, and a 20MM green faceted crystal bead forms a tassel head. The crystals were hot fixed onto a flat piece of leather which was wrapped around neck because it was impossble to hot fix the crystals onto the curved tassel neck. The tassel is attached to the chain with looped wire which runs through the center of the bead and tassel neck to a stop bead hidden in the skirt. I do need to get heavier beading wire and add a crimp bead to make it really secure. The tassel attaches to the bag with a big nickel plated lobster claw clasp so I can remove it.

So a big thank you to HotPatterns for such a great bag! La Rue bags are now going for the ridiculous price of $150 on the Patricia Field web site, so get sewing and make one of your own!

I really love this pattern.

Happy Holidays!
Phyllis

Reuse That Old Handbag Hardware December 13, 2006

By Diva Els

Since I made my last leather bag I felt the urge to sew another one for everyday use. I save my bags although they are be worn out or out of date but I cannot throw a bag away. One of my favourite bags ((bought 10 years ago) was worn out but I still like the design and the hardware was good enough to reuse again.
 

So I made a copy of this bag.
A piece of dark green butter soft leather was in my stash and waiting for a use.
I measured the bag width, length, height, and depth and made a paper pattern.
The original bag has a center seam at the side where the zipper pocket is placed but I had enough leather to skip that seam. I interfaced the leather parts with a fusible non-woven special leather interfacing which can be ironed with a warm iron.
The non-woven interfacing is cut with seam allowances. The bottom and side part could use a bit more strength so I added an extra layer of a sturdier interfacing between the first and second layer (this one without seam allowances).
The shoulder straps also could use a bit more strength so I did some testing and used a piece of petersham ribbon as an extra layer.
The opening of the bag where the zipper will be attached is stabilized with fusible seam tape as well as the lining opening.

I used leather glue to hold the leather seam allowances, and a hammer to flatten the seams. The bag has two pockets on both sides, one is an open pocket, 

and on the other side a zippered one.


The lining is interfaced with a fusible cotton red interfacing. The inside pocket is made of a double layer of the lining fabric.
The inside pocket

has a double function, the outside is a zippered pocket while the under layer is an open pocket,

This pocket is sewn at the lining by topstitching around the edges. I also added a key ring at the side depth of the bag.
When I was sewing the short end of the zipper at the bag with the hardware ring attached, I noticed I made a mistake. The hardware has a silver colour and I used a matching green with brass colour zipper teeth.

I removed the green brass zipper from the opening but left the pocket zipper because that side is not shown to the public while I wear that bag. I wear my shoulder bag on my left shoulder so the zipper pocket is towards my body. I bought a new green zipper with silver teeth which had a nice zipper pull,

but the colour was not spot on and the zipper was not working properly. It was stiff. I tried to smooth it by rubbing beewax on the teeth but it did not help. So I decided to use another zipper from my stash. This time a grey one that worked okay but needed to be covered to hide the grey tape.
I used 2 strips of leather to cover the tape.
I stretched the leather a bit while sewing the leather at the zipper tape so the zipper has the same shallow shape, to match the bag’s shape.

So the zipper is sewn in on a different way. The original bag zipper opening is topstitched and the zipper tape was partly visible.
It was easy to sew this bag on my Pfaff sewing machine because the leather was soft, the hardest part was sewing in the zipper. I needed to do some tests for the zipper to see which order to sew it. I found out that the short side of the zipper, where the ring is attached, needed to be sewn in first. Secondly, the zipper long ends on both sides, and lastly the other short end where the shoulder straps is attached.
The lining is sewn in by hand at the zipper tape,

because I had already glued the leather seam allowance to the inside.
The final step was to add the bag stop,

which helps to prevent the shoulder strap gliding of my shoulder.

Finished bag.

Done and ready to use.

Bobby Breslau bag November 21, 2006

 By Diva ElsI wanted to make a copy of this unusual shaped bag after reading about this bag at
Kathleen Fasanella’s website And reading more about the bag that Gigi is making
I had hopes to find the pattern but no luck . Gigi was kind enough for tracing the pattern pieces and sent it to me in The Netherlands.

Items I used for this bag:
The leather bag is sewn with a home machine Pfaff 1467, I used a regular sewing foot on which I glued a piece of Teflon under the foot. Stitch length 3.5, needle size 90 and regular Gütermann thread. Leather glue, small piece of lining leather and a hammer to pound the seams flat. I had a large piece of leather about 32 square foot in my stash and it was enough for making this huge bag, although I had to cut the front pocket with a center seam. Fusible hair canvas for leather in two different weights and a soft non woven fusible special for leather.


I also used fusible woven tape for leather at the front opening and the inside pockets for stabilising, as well as 2 pieces of rigilene boning (6 and 12 mm)

Detail rigilene boning,

The wider one 12 mm which I stitched at the inside of the flap at the spot where the back parts ends and the flap starts.

The other piece of rigilene boning (6 mm ) I glued between the facing and the upper part of the front and topstitched from the right side of the bag.

The most heavy haircanvas is fused at the back, side parts and the shoulder straps ( without seam allowances), the other pattern parts are interfaced with the lighter weight canvas while the nonwoven interfacing is fused at the flap facing, the inside pocket, and the shoulder strap facing part.
The pockets are lined except the cell phone pocket. To further strenghten the straps I decided to use a bit more interfacing so I fused a second layer of the heavy hair canvas to these.
The magnetic closure at the front is stabilized with a piece of leather lining at the inside and I also glued a piece of the leather lining on top of it so the metal part is covered and can not damage the leather.


I added a cell phone pocket and a key ring at the side part.
The straps were cut longer and were not tied in a knot (in contrast to the Pattern example), but they were sewed together as one. I like the longer shoulder strap so I can wear the bag crossed over the shoulder.
I added a Vogue American Designer Original label inside the back pocket,

The unusual shape of the bag bottom,

The sizes of the bag I made are:
width 16 inch ( 41 cm)
depth side 9,5 inch ( 24 cm)
height 12 inch ( 30 cm
Shoulder strap length 53 inch ( 134 cm)

Els

No More Tears September 16, 2006

Both of my daughters take dance and they’re required to wear their hair in a bun for class. We always race right from school to the studio, and for class they hate the traditional ponyholder-hairpins-hairnet-hairspray-Mommy-stop-you’re-hurting-me method of making a bun.

My mother found these wire and fabric bun wraps somewhere. They are so easy make and perfect for dance class. All you need is:

A scrap of fabric at least 17 inches by 3 inches
A piece of picture hanging wire 31 inches long
Wire cutters

Make the pattern: Draw a rectangle 15 inches x 2 inches. Find something round in the house with a 2 inch diameter – vitamin bottle, roll of tape, etc – and use it to round off the ends of the rectangle. Add a ½ inch seam allowance all around. In the center mark a 3 inch slit.

Making the bun wrap: Cut out two pieces of fabric, mark the slit on one piece, and sew the pieces together. Trim the seam allowance to ¼ inch, cut open the slit and turn the tube inside out. Take your picture wire and bend it into the same shape as the rounded rectangle – you have an extra inch for twisting the ends of the wire together. Cut off any sharp ends with wire cutters so they don’t poke through the fabric.

Insert the wire into the slit, and zigzag the slit all around as if it’s a giant buttonhole.

Viola – it’s done! It will probably take you longer to get the hang of making a bun than it will to make the bun wrap. If you know how to use old-fashioned cloth curlers the instructions will make perfect sense.

Wrapping a bun: Pull the hair together into a pony and through the slit. Move the bun wrap about ½ down the hair. Start wrapping the hair, tucking in the ends, from the bottom up until you get to the nape of the neck:

Tighten the rolled hair against the nape of the neck and bend the ends down into a horseshoe shape and then cross the ends:

Bring the ends up to the top of the bun and twist the ends over each other to hold the bun in place:

This bun wrap is great for class and is not strong enough for a performance - but at least making a bun on the fly is now fast, simple, and painless!

Keep on sewin’
Phyllis

Covered Button and Belt Source September 13, 2006

Pat’s Custom Buttons and Belts in Lodi, California is a small but necessary resource for those of us who want the REAL THING. Pat Mahoney runs her business in an ‘old school’ custom one-of-a-kind or many-of-a-kind way. She can work by phone, or by mail and has an excellent spiral bound catalog that she can mail to you.

I haven’t seen this selection of covered belts and buckles for ages - it reminds me of when NYC’s Garment Center was a bustling district full of rolling racks, delivery trucks triple parked, carts of fabric bolts perilously barreling down the sidewalk and the cluster of Italian patternmakers took over most of the sunny side of the street in front of 525 7th Ave. You could send your fabric out in the morning and your covered buttons would be back that afternoon.

I was in a hurry, so we sent everything back and forth by FedEx. Snail mail works fine though, if you have the time. I love my giant velvet covered buttons, big as dinner plates, with the matching covered belt. She has 6 different styles of button backs to choose from, 16 styles of covered button, and 12 styles of covered button with novelty rims and centers. I won’t even go into all of the belt options.

Hooray for Pat, keeping the tradition alive. I don’t suppose she will mind if I say you can contact her at 209-369-5410, PO Box 335 Lodi, CA 95241.

Pattern Shopping at the Airport September 4, 2006

Hi - Phyllis here. My daughter (that’s her above) has a vexing habit of using big bath towels when she washes her hair, and inevitably she leaves them all over the house. This past Saturday we were heading home from vacation, and she found this in a duty-free shop at the airport. This very cute spa head wrap couldn’t be simpler - it’s two pieces of terry (you can use bath towels), a loop and a button. And it sews up in about 20 minutes.

If you want to get fancy a monogram is a nice touch. It’s one size fits all, and they make great gifts.

You can see a more detailed review on Pattern Review.