Friday Night Bag

 

Got a hot date?  A rocking girls’ night out?  Any excuse at all to wear heels and get out of the house without kids?  Yeah, me neither.  But if/when I do, I’m taking this bag with me. 
Remember the original fabric for the [let’s not worry that it’s still not even started] shawl collar assignment that I cut out before realizing I had too little yardage?  I made this bag out of one of the ill-fated sleeves.   I knew I wanted to make a bag out of that fabric.  But since the fabric was cut, I needed it to be a small bag.   I love clutches, but if things aren’t physically attached to me, I loose them.  (Ask me about the time I lost my neighbor’s garage door opener…  yesterday.)  So I needed a wristlet.  I wanted it to be pretty sturdy, and I have a love for plastic canvas, so it seemed the logical choice.  Then when I went to buy the plastic canvas to make the inside form, I happened to find some precut plastic canvas clutch forms.  Go figure.  Apparently my idea wasn’t so original and plastic canvas is the “it” medium for purse forms.  Who knew?  But the form I found is actually for a needle point clutch.

Wow.  I have no desire to spend that much time making a clutch.  But I did use the basic shape of the precut form, with a few changes,  to work for the wristlet I had in mind.  Only my version takes about an hour to make and uses just a couple larger scraps of fabric.  Which means you can totally make a bunch to match any outfit, or to give to girlfriends for Christmas. 

So the Friday Night Bag: 
It easily holds all the essentials for a night on the town.
But it’s low profile enough to not get in your way or bog you down with everything you normally carry with you.  And if your evening of frolic leaves you in, say, some abandoned building, you’re going to want a bag that’s not going to weigh you down should you have to make a run for it. 

Want one?  You can make your own…

You’ll need:
-Pattern pieces (there are five PDFs total, make sure to get them all)
-Sheet of plastic canvas
-Two pieces of fabric, a little less than a fat quarter each
-Medium- to heavy weight interfacing (not pictured)
-Magnetic snaps
-Whatever notions you may want to add

Using the purse outer and lining pattern, cut out one each of the outer, lining, and interfacing.
Using the purse form pattern, cut out one of the plastic canvas

Fold one arm of the lining up onto the lining along the side, matching raw edges, right sides together.  Sew along the length of the arm

You’ll be sewing a curved seam here.  To make it go more smoothly, sew as far as the raw edges meet, lower needle, raise presser foot, pull top fabric to match the raw edge of lower, lower presser foot, sew, repeat until the curve is sewn

Repeat for other side of arm, and then second arm until you have the lining resembling a bag

For bag outer, attach interfacing to wrong side.

And then repeat the same process as the lining.  So now you have two cute little bag-like friends

Attach the magnetic snap to the outer purse, through the interfacing, at inside front.

At this point, add any notions or decoration you want to the flap of the outer purse.  I just went through all my odds and ends at this point and personalized all the bags I was making.  Have fun with it.

The next few pictures, just ignore that snap on the lining.  I was an idiot and totally screwed up when I was doing the tutorial.  Learn from my mistakes.  And then let’s pretend it’s not even there, hmmm?!

Turn the outer purse right side out and place inside the wrong side out lining, so the right sides are together.  Match all raw edges.

Somehow I didn’t get a picture of the next step, but you need to sew along from one side of the flap, down and around the entire opening of the purse itself, and back up the other side of the flap.  Leave the entire top of the flap open and unsewn.

Clip corners to release tension when turned.
Turn.

And push the lining into the outer purse.

Now cut a strip of fabric 2*12 inches or so

Fold and press each long side toward the center, wrong side together.  Then fold and press in half along the length.

Sew down the length and fold into a loop. 
Or just use finished trim, like I did in the first bag pictured.

Place the ends of the loop inside the bag at one side

Sew in place, securing in a cross-box stitch pattern

Now grab the plastic canvas form and start stuffing it into the opening at the flap.  This is the hardest part, but it’s really not too bad.  I found it easiest to kind of pull the lining back out a little, get the form down and in, then replace the lining

Now set the other side of magnetic snap in place inside the flap.  I used the plastic canvas as reinforcement, since there wasn’t interfacing on the inside of the flap.

Now fold the outer, interfaced top of the flap over the plastic canvas and then fold the lining up against the folded outer edge.

Top stitch the opening of the flap closed

Fill with your On-The-Town essentials

And you’ve got a cute little bag that you won’t forget and leave somewhere, but that will still keep your hands free for any and all necessary date night activities.  Nudge nudge wink wink.

Linking to a few of these parties.
And thank you to Christie for trespassing with me to get the pictures.