How to Sew Handbags

Sewing your own handbags guarantees you'll have a handbag in the color, size and style of your choosing. They also make terrific gifts for women of every age. Once you have mastered the skill, you'll be able to make a custom handbag within the course of a weekend. This project is for a small clutch handbag, but once you've gotten the hang of this simple construction you can easily adapt it for purses and totes of every size.

Things You'll Need

• Velvet, upholstery, or heavy satin or sateen fabric
• 
Lining fabric in matching or contrasting color
• Reinforcement
• 
Thread 

• Sewing needle 

• Sewing machine 

• Pattern paper 

• Tailor's measuring tape
• Pins
• Zipper

Instructions

How to Sew Handbags

1. Decide what size you want your clutch handbag to be. It can be a square or a rectangle of any dimension. Use a ruler and pencil to draw the finished size you desire on a piece of pattern paper. Double the height you've assigned to your bag. Cut your piece.

2. Iron your exterior purse fabric. Lay the fabric face up on your cutting table and fold in half so that the wrong side is showing. Pin your pattern to the fabric, making sure the pins go through both layers. Cut out your pattern pieces, making sure to leave a 1/2-inch seam allowance. Repeat this process with your lining fabric.

3. Pin the edges of the exterior fabric together on three sides, leaving the top of the bag open. Sew together on the three pinned sides, leaving a 1/2-inch seam allowance. Repeat this step with the lining fabric. Press the seams open on both the exterior and the lining fabric.

4. Turn your exterior fabric right side out. Turn the edges inward 1/2 inch and iron to form a crease. Keep your lining turned inside out. Turn the lining edges outward 1/2 inch and iron to form a crease. Measure the length. Take your zipper and measure the same length from the top of the closed zipper downward. Mark the measurement. Double thread your sewing needle and stitch over the zipper at the marked measure at least 10 times. This is your zipper stop. Clip 1/2 an inch below the stop.

5. Place the lining inside the exterior fabric bag. Slip and pin the zipper in on both sides between the exterior shell and interior lining. Zip up and check to make sure it is straight. Adjust your pins as you need to until the zipper lines up correctly when it is zipped. Baste your zipper in place and remove your pins. Zip up the zipper to double-check again to check the fit. Adjust as needed. Sew your zipper in place. Fold your bag in half and hold at the fold to create a classic clutch bag look.