DIY Travel purse

Travel purse

Another slight departure this week. Most Greenie posts are for clothing and accessories.

Two friends are off to Thailand next week and asked if I would make them a travel purse. They had a good idea of

Sew a hem across top and bottom ends

what they wanted. Something in which they could keep passports, lip balm and cash. I also made them a large lightweight cloth bag for all the rest of their stuff. Find that pattern – here.

Sew a hem in top and bottom ends. Pins sides.

Nearly all my patterns use circles, semi circles, triangles, squares or rectangles. I only use patterns for trousers and jackets, which obviously must fit properly and require a patterns to get that right.

This purse was a rectangle 70 centimetres long x 28 centimetres wide. If you wanted your

Stitch sides. Snip corners. Fold over side edges and stitch

purse bigger or smaller. longer or wider, then play with the measurements. My only suggestion is to cut the bag pattern out of newspaper, fold all around for your seam allowance, and check you are happy with the dimensions.

The ladies gave me the fabric. It’s an upholstery velvet. Whatever you use – it needs to be firm. Think canvas, denim, faux suede, along those lines.

Fold over top flap and pin to make a space for rope strap

Since I was making two of them, I was able to show the process with two bags at a time.

You need: –
firm fabric about 70 centimetres x 28 centimetres
matching colour thread
sewing machine
pins
rope or strapping for strap

You do: –
Cut out your travel purse.

Sew a hem across the top and the bottom ends.

Slide rope through space at top of bag and tie rope.

Pin sides and sew them together. Snip corners.

Fold over sides of flap and sew a hem there.

Now press your travel purse with an iron so it’s nice and flat. Fold over the top flap and press again.

Depending on the width of your rope, pin across the top to create a space for your strap.

Stitch across top of bag.

Slide rope though space at top of bag and tie rope ends together. You can leave knot in the casing so it’s not visible.

How easy is that? My galleries are waaay out of date. Will hopefully add the last few month’s DIY’s soon.

Do check out the Galleries at the top of the page for older posts to hopefully inspire you to DIY and not buy.

See you next week.

Greenie.