Hounds Tooth With Deep Purple Susan, Small
Here is the companion bag to yesterday's blog bag, my full size Susan bag with deep purple lining and ribbon accent. This was a hit at the party, and I'm sure it will be popular when I take it out and about with me.
The front of the bag, the ribbon looks a little navy colored. It is a very deep purple. The color shows a little better in the second photo. The lining is a perfect match for the ribbon color.
This style of bag takes me approximately 3-4 hours to make, so in general I do only 2-3 of them a day. I try to shorten the time by doing a dozen all together I spend an entire work day cutting the fabrics, each bag has 18 total pieces. It takes about a yard and a half of fabric in 3 different weights and prints. Over a yard of interfacing, and the two labels.
Once I have a dozen or more bags cut I start assembly lining them. I press all of the straps and sew them together. That takes over an hour for 24 straps. I stitch my heavy interfacing in to the bottoms of the bags. Even though interfacing can be heat set i find it holds better when it is stitched in, it also keeps the bag more solid and makes for a sturdier final product. On a large Susan there are 3 seams of stitching in the base, only 2 are needed for a small Susan. To do a dozen bags, this takes over an hour as well. Once the bases are attached I sew on the sides of the bag to the base, once the sides are attached I iron on fusible interfacing, and then sew it down over the seam of the two pieces, I also sew down the interfacing along the side and top seams as well. It holds ok but it does tend to buckle and separate over time. I measure the spacing for the ribbon trim and bow, and I attach those. Then I measure out the spacing for the handles, and sew them down. A side seam, and boxed seam at the bottom finishes off the outside of the bag. I press down the seams and start in on the inside pocket. I stitch that together turn it and then press it. Measure the spacing on the lining and pin it down. I stitch it on with two layers of stitching for extra strength. I sew together my two lining pieces and press the seam. After I box the bottom seam, I attach the lining to the outside of the bag and stitch it together.
When doing a dozen bags together, I do every step all as one. I make all of the pockets together, attach all of the ribbons together, and so on. It takes about an hour to do each step. Once I get to the final few steps I sometimes finish off a bag or two and leave the rest for another day. In general it will take me 3 full work days to finish that dozen bags. Which works out to about 4 a day, so that is a little faster than nearly 4 hours to do one bag, I think that makes it closer to 2 1/2 hours on each bag. Either way there are a lot of steps and the process is long, but the bags are beautiful and they are well made.
That is my basic tutorial on bag making. See you tomorrow for what will be a surprise to us all, Happy two months of blogging!
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