Monday, August 13, 2012

Ruffled Bag --- Tutorial!

 I wanted to show you how fun and easy these ruffled bags are to make!

1. Purchase a canvas tote bag from a craft store or Walmart.  I purchased small ones and a pack of larger tote bags for the 3 different bags I made.

The smaller bags fabric surface space  without the handles is: 
10 1/2 inches long.
The larger tote bag fabric surface space without the handles is: 
13 1/2 inches long.

2. Buy or find your fabric combinations.  I only purchased small amounts of fabric for our bags.

For these smaller bags:  I purchased 5 1/4 inch widths for each row of fabric and then cut them down  to 3 1/2 in width strips after that.
For the larger tote bag:  I purchased a little bit more fabric than that and cut it into 4 1/2 in width strips for each row. 

**NOTE** If you are going to make a fabric rose: 
Remember to purchase a little more fabric of the color you are going to use to make your rose.  You will probably only need 3-4 more inches in width.  On my little bags, the 3 small flowers was a strip about 2 1/4 wide then folded and rolled.  I will do a post tutorial on how to make a fabric rose soon!

The larger rose was a strip about 4.5 inches wide.

 To Make the ruffled bags:

1.  Once you have decided on your fabric, I laid out my color combinations to decide the order of the fabric.  
Depending on  the size of bag you are sewing on will depend on how wide you cut the strips.

For the smaller bags I cut my strips at 3 1/2 inches  by 22 in. long.
  *** Finished ruffle width on my smaller bag is 2 1/4 inches.

For the larger tote bag I cut my strips at 4 1/2 inches by 22 in. long.
   ***Finished ruffle width on my larger bag is 3 1/4 inches.

2.  Press a hem for the top row and repeat a hem for  the bottom roll. The top roll hem will be stitched as a gather stitch. I did a double roll hem on bottom roll.  The bottom roll hem will be a solid tight stitch. no gather.


3.  Lay out your strips and make certain you are going to cover your bag.

4. Stitch each of your strips.  Remember you have to stitch each side of the hem on both edges of the fabric.  
** Your top hem is stitched as a gather stitch**  This is how you are going to get your ruffles!  :)

The bottom roll hem is stitched tight and does not need to be gathered.

5. Pull your gathers to fit the width of the bags.  Once they are placed on the bag and you  have them measured off then you can roll the ends of the strips and stitch them closed to give a small edge a hem to stop fraying. As these ends are in this picture.
6.  Place and pin the strips of fabric on the bag.


7. Stitch the bottom row first, working your way up to the top. flip up your unstitched rows to keep them out of the way.

8.  Stitch your second row of ruffles and repeat for the 3rd and 4th row.

**On these smaller tote bags, I only put ruffles on the front, because the back of these have some cute pockets already stitched on for organizing.  

Here is a back view of the smaller bags...

Here is the finished larger tote bag.

 I did stitch ruffles on the back.  I did not stitch them closed on the side of the bag, they are just free. But I did the same steps to attach the ruffles as on the front.  The bottom row first, then 2nd, 3rd and 4th until finished. But again, I did not attach the ruffles on the sides
of the tote bag. 
 


For a tutorial on how to make the fabric rose you can click here or on this picture below...

If you would like to see additional photos of these bags you can click here or on the picture below...

I hope you enjoy your new tote bags!  Ours have been working out fabulously! They work perfect hanging in our Pottery Barn Lockers I built in the Garage. The Girls hang them up in their lockers and they are always where we need them to be.  If you would like to see How I built our Pottery Barn Lockers, you can see that here or by clicking on the photo below:


If you would like to see another sewing tutorial, you can see how I made an Envelope Pillow case, Chevron Style here or by clicking on the photo below...


With Much Love & Gratitude,



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