Framed Purse Tutorial…

By far the most requested tutorial I’ve had recently has been for a framed purse tutorial so that is where we will start.

**  1 purse frame of the glue-in variety

**  A scrap of paper/card at least size A4 in size

**  1 fat 1/4 or fat 1/8th fabric for the outside (it depends how big your frame is)

**  1 fat 1/4 or fat 1/8th fabric for the lining

**  1 fat 1/4 or fat 1/8th of iron on pellon/fleece/felt or wadding.

{Special note: don’t get too carried away worrying about whether you have the “right” stuff for this – just use what you have! The main purpose is to give the fabric a bit of bulk and stability.}

**  1 tube of glue (obviously you won’t use all of it). I use “u-hu” but I’ll talk more about glue in a minute.

This step is why there are few patterns available for purse frames – because frames differ so much and each style requires a different template. Once you have a few under your belt though you’ll work out what style you like and be able to make a template to suit. It’s quite liberating once  you get over the initial fear…

1. Take your piece of scrap paper and fold it into half widthways then place your purse frame so that the clasp is centred on the fold.

2. Draw around the top of the frame end to end, also marking where the end of the frame and the end of the hinges each are.

Draw around it again on the outside of the line using a distance of whatever seem allowance you will use. I use 1/4 of an inch.

Using your ruler draw a line out from outside line at your desired angle to the length you would like the pouch to finish…

Lets break for a minute to talk about angles, as this is the area I struggled and panicked the most when first trying it.

The main thing that you need to know is that the “bigger” your angle, the more “poofy” your purse will end up.

Here are a few examples to help you out…

See the difference the wider angle makes?

Here’s another example of the template I used on the smaller enamel frames and using a slight angle again.

I personally find the more slight angle suits me better. I like the look of it better as well as I find them slightly less fiddly to glue into the frame.

however, now you should be able to pick which look you like better and hopefully know how much of an angle to draw.

Ok back to our template making:

3. Fold your template in half on the fold and cut out around the outer line you just drew.

Great, you’ve just made your pattern. Nice job!

Using the template you just made, cut out 2 pieces for your outer purse, 2 pieces for the lining and 2 pieces of the iron on pellon/fleece.

Following the manufacturers instructions, attach the iron on wadding to the wrong side of your outer purse fabric.

Transfer the marks showing where your hinges finish off your pattern piece and on to one piece of our outer purse and one piece of your lining. These will become your sewing start and finish marks.

Lets pause for a minute to talk about the hinge indicator marks that we made on our pattern. These form our beginning and ending sew lines…I like to make my marks and start/stop sewing exactly where the hinges end. This is where my instructions differ from the several other tutorials I’ve read on how to sew a purse frame before and where most of my frustration with my first attempts lied.
Because in those tutorials they instructed me to make my marks 1/4 inch below where the hinge stopped. For some reason I find that this leaves an unslightly and unnecessarily large gap once the purse frame is all glued together. It took me a lot of playing around and experimentation to find out what affected what, but I definitely like the results better when I don’t leave that 1/4 inch gap.
I’ll show you what I mean:

In the photo above the top purse had the start/stop sew marks 1/4 inch below where the hinges stopped and the bottom one had them level with the end of the frame rather than the hinge.
See how much difference it makes?
So use your discretion but I prefer to have less of a gap. Some of the gaps in my purses before I realised this were waaaaay too big and I was not happy at all.

Anyway, back to it…

Take your two pieces of outer purse fabric and place them right sides together.

Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance and beginning at the hinge indicator mark to the right hand side of your purse, sew around your purse until you get to the other mark.

So you should be leaving what will the top of your purse unsewn.

Repeat for your lining pieces.

Box off your corners if necessary…

Turn your outer purse piece in the other way so that the right sides are facing out.

Push it inside the lining piece so that the right sides are facing inwards…

Pin the layers together…
Not all four at once (just in case that’s unclear from my photo) but just two layers at once – the lining and outer bag, then the other side of the lining and outer bag.

Starting at the top edge of your purse, sew together the lining and outer bag layers. Go the entire way around the tops of the bag, but leave about a 3 inch gap for turning…

Go slowly when you get to the join part because you must make sure that you stitch in far enough so that there isn’t a whole when you turn the bag, but you don’t want to stitch in too far because this again affects that gap I was talking about above.
It’s a little awkward at that point. I usually find it easiest to sew down then stop, put my presser foot up and swivel that bag a little.

It should look like this once you’ve sewn round it.

Pull your bag in the right way through the turning hole you left.
Press the seams on the turning hole under ready for sewing.

Stitch the hole closed 1/8th inch from the edge or as close as you can get to the edge.
{Because you don’t want to see your stitches later if you leave too much of a gap.}

Step 4: Gluing it all together…

Ahh the fun part… seeing it all come together!
Lets talk glue for a minute…
I use U-HU glue to stick mine together. I know other people who use different glues to that but that’s the only type I’ve ever used. It’s just what was sent to me when I ordered the “special” glue from the purse frame supplier but in actual fact you can buy it at any hardware store and most stationary stores.

I’ve used both the all purpose and the “power” one and they both work fine!

I was a bit let down at first when I got delivered U-HU all purpose glue, because I was expecting more of a “specialty” product. But then I kicked myself because on days like today when I run out of glue in the middle of making my tutorial, it’s super handy being able to run down the road and pick up some more, rather than have to order it from a specialty online store and wait forever for the mail.

I find it works really well. It comes off the metal frames really easily if you are a bit too generous.
The only thing is that the coloured enamel frames I used didn’t like it particularly much. It didn’t scratch off those too easily and on some of them it made the colour run. I am assuming that all glues will do the same to them. So if you happen to have those they be veeeeery careful not to use too much.

Ok, back to the project at hand.

Take your purse frame and dab small dots of glue the entire way along one side of it.
Be sparing! Seriously, you really don’t need much. Otherwise it will ooze when you push  your fabric in and you will have a bit of a mess on your hands.

Now you get to push your purse piece into it. I find it easiest to start at one end and work to the other.
Use your scissors, a skewer or something else equally as pointy to push all that fabric right up snug into the frame…

Word to the wise – make sure you check you are gluing the right side of your purse to the right side of the frame… yes stupidly I’ve made that mistake before and had to pull it quickly back out again to save from disaster – doh!

This is the hardest part – once you have glued that first side leave it alone for a good 15-30 minutes minimum.
As tempting as it is to race on and glue the other side straight away so that you can finish it, don’t do it…
Go make yourself a cup of tea or something!

Then when it’s had a decent amount time to cure a bit, go back and glue the other side…

Wallah… you are done – you’ve made a professionally finished purse frame.

Nicely done you!!

I hope you have enjoyed that share it Saturday!
Next week we will look at how to do a basic applique.

As always, if you use my tutorial I’d love to hear about (and see) your results 🙂