Vinyl Purse

Materials:

Marine Vinyl – 12 inches x 28 inches

Fabric – Cotton print – 1 yard

Pellon Décor weight Fusible Interfacing – ¾ yards (42 inches wide)  Very stiff

Kam snaps – 6 sets – 12 caps, 6 female connectors and 6 male connectors 

Get Long Prong Kam Snaps if possible.

2 pieces of metal measuring tape  ¾” by 10 ½ inches each

Batting – 9” x 10”

Plastic needle point webbing 3 “ x 8” (for bottom of purse) 

Heat N Bond 8” x 10”

Duct tape

Embroidery pattern for front of purse

Cuts:

Marine Vinyl – 12” x 28”

Fabric -            12” x 33” – main purse

                        3” x 42” – strap

                        2 pieces – 9” x 10” – outside pocket

                        2 pieces – 8” x 18” – inside pockets

                        1 piece – 8” x 10” bottom of purse

Batting -          9” x 10”

Pellon -            12” x 33” – main purse

                        3” x 42” strap

                        2 pieces – 8” x 9” – inside pockets

Mark the vinyl on the wrong side with the following lines.  This will help you embroider the front of your bag with it perfectly centered.

1 ¼ inch wide	5 ¼ inches wide	5 ¼ inches wide	2 inches wide	2 inches wide	10 ½ inches wide	1 ¼ inch wide

IRON TO FUSE the Pellon on to the back of the main purse fabric, purse strap and inside purse pockets. The inside pockets will only have Pellon on one half of the fabric:

For the inside pockets, fold fabric in half (8” x 9”)

Sew around leaving opening at bottom for turning.

Turn inside pockets.  The opening at the bottom will be closed when you attached the pockets to the inside of purse.  Press.

Attach 1 Kam snap and  1 male connector to the top middle of pocket. DON’T FORGET….OTHERWISE LATER ITS IMPOSSIBLE….. :-)

Place fused main purse fabric right side down.  Please vinyl piece right side up.  You will notice that you have 2.5” inches on either end. 

I measure down 4.5” from each side.  I center the pockets.  I mark on the main purse fabric where the Kam snap and female connectors should go and attach those.  AGAIN DON’T FORGET … OTHERWISE LATER ITS IMPOSSIBLE….. :-)

Sew down pockets.   Set aside.

Press the strap in half.  Then press each side to the center.  The strap will be ¾” wide.  Press well and then top stitch strap.  Set aside.

Now its time to make the outside pocket.  If you don’t have a Destiny, Solaria, Dream Machine 2 or Luminaire you will have to make the quilted pocket on the sewing machine. 

To make on the above machine go to IQ Designer (My Design Center) Select shapes and a square.  Size the Square to 6.25” wide and 7” long”.  Use a double run stitch.  Save shape to pocket. Click to Embroidery.  Click ADD.   Recall the shape.  Change color. Turn off the outline stitching.  Fill with the fill of your choosing. Click to Embroidery.  Click ADD.  Recall the shape.   Change Color. Use double run stich, erasing line on bottom so you can turn pocket. Click to Embroidery.  Click ADD.  

I place the batting and the front side of  9” x 10” fabric.  I run the first step.  I then run the fill (quilting).  I then place the second 9” x 10” piece of fabric face down and run the next step.  Turn and press.  The bottom will be closed when the pocket is attached.

Attach 1 Kam snap and  1 male connector to the top middle of pocket. DON’T FORGET….OTHERWISE LATER ITS IMPOSSIBLE….. :-)

This pocket is placed on the vinyl 3 inches down from side of vinyl:

BEFORE SEWING DOWN POCKET!!!  Place pocket and mark where Kam Snap  and female connector and attached that kam snap and female connector. 

DON’T FORGET….OTHERWISE LATER ITS IMPOSSIBLE….. :-)

NOW IT’S TIME TO DO THE EMBROIDERY ON THE FRONT OF THE PURSE.

The space you have is about 8 inches by 8 inches.  I use variegated thread a lot on my designs because it gives a nice effect and they work well with open designs. 

Do not pick a large stitch count design.  I learned recently that I could hoop my vinyl in my 8 x 8 magnetic hoop and I didn’t have to use stabilizer.  HOWEVER, Centering design is important and its tricky with the magnetic hoop. 

If you use stabilizer mark the horizontal and vertical centers.  Use a bit of spray adhesive to hold your vinyl in place using the markings on the back.

Once you finish your embroidery you are ready to assemble your purse. 

Take the two pieces of metal measuring tape and round off the ends with an old pair of scissors.  You don’t want to have any rough edges.  Wrap the ends with duct tape. 

Place MAIN FABRIC PURSE PIECE right side down.  Place VINYL PIECE  right side up.   On the ends fold fabric once then again and pin down.  See photo below.   You will be topstitching along the edges to make a casing (see red arrows)

Insert metal tape measure into each side:

Make sure that metal tape is in the middle so that when you sew the sides, the machine won’t hit the metal.

You will then be placing  a Kam Snap in the middle on either side of the purse.  See picture for placement.  Remember to put a female connector on one side and a male connector on the other side. 

I now usually run a row of stitching down either side to hold everything in place.  The vinyl can be slippery. 

Once that is done you can fold with the right side of the vinyl together.  I sew a ¼ inch seam.  I backstitch a the top and bottom.  Once that is done I zigzag the edges (you could use a serger for the edges if you have one… I don’t)  Trim loose threads. 

To box the bottom.  See photo below .  Sew a 3 inch line across.  Reinforce the stitches.  Cut tip off and then zigzag the edges.   Do this on both sides.

You are ready to turn your purse, put bottom in  and add the strap. 

Turning can be tricky because of the metal tape but it will turn. 

Take the remaining 8” x 10” piece of fabric and fuse the Heat N Bond to wrong side of fabric.  Place the fabric down Heat N Bong side up.  Place the 3” x 8” plastic webbing in the middle of the fabric.  Iron the fabric around the plastic webbing to totally enclosed.

Then glue this piece to the bottom of the inside of the purse.

To attached strap sew the strap to the front left corner and the back left corner as the picture shows.  Add a kam snap to hold down strap on both sides of the purse.

            

SUPPLIES:

Vinyl – Mikri World Supplies LLC online.  Marine vinyl – lots of colors, fast delivery and great product.  I mainly use their vinyl

Variegated Thread by ThreadArt online.  Good prices

Plastic webbing – Walmart

Kam snaps – Amazon.  Get long prong size if you can.

                                                                  

MAKING THE QUILT WITH IN THE HOOP QUILT BLOCKS - Part Two

In my previous blog post, Part One of Making the Quilt with in the hoop quilt blocks, I showed how I made each block.  This post, I will show how I sew them together

The blocks are the ones I created using the method described in my blog post CREATING QUILT BLOCK USING CONTOUR FILL - STITCH ARTIST 2 or 3. In that blog post I described how I created the contour design.  I created a Sea Horse, a Sea Turtle, a Fish and a Shell.  For the Shell and the Sea Turtle, I added more detail than just the contour fill.


I use Stitch Artist by Embrilliance for digitizing embroidery. Its one of the most user friendly programs and there are many many Stitch Artist Videos to help you get started.  The online PDF manual is full of great instruction.

Once the blocks are embroidered they look like this:

We need to trim away the excess top fabric and excess polymesh ONLY!  We will be cutting them to fit the 9" x 9" piece of batting that is under the top fabric.  To cut, place the block on cutting mat FACE DOWN:

Now, fold back the backing fabric.  With ruler and rotary blade cut polymesh and top fabric along the batting edge:

Make sure not to cut the backing fabric or the batting

When you cut all 4 sides, turn over and your block will look like this:

I iron my blocks.  I received an early birthday present last month of a LauraStar Iron, which is the greatest iron EVER.  It's a bit pricey, but I got a deal from my Brother Dealer because I purchased a machine from them.  

After ironing, I pin the edges and with my sewing machine I stitch along all the edges of the top fabric very very close to the edges....just make sure they are secure and the top fabric doesn't shift when assembling the quilt.

To assemble the big blocks with the 4 smaller blocks, I place one block face down and place the other block face up:

I pin along the right edge and sew along the top fabric edge.

I have a Pfaff sewing machine which has a built in walking foot.  A walking foot is your best friend when machine quilting.  You are able to feed the fabric evenly.

Other sewing machine have a walking foot that can be attached.  I highly recommend this foot for quilting.  












Once sewn, take to your iron and press the seam open.  Then carefully turn under each side of the seam as shown:

I pin just to hold the seam and take it back to my sewing machine to sew it down.  I used a decorative stitch, however you can use a straight stitch as well:

Sew down both sides and then press:

Here is was the back side will look like:

Each big block is made up of 4 smaller blocks.  You would use the same method to assemble the big block.  Place one face down and one face up, pin in place and sew along top fabric edge:

Open seam and press.  Fold under and top stitch.  

Here is the completed big block:

To attached the big blocks together, place one facing down, the other facing up, pin in place, and stitch along top fabric edge:

Again press seam open, fold under and topstitch.  Here are the 2 big blocks stitch together:

There will be 36 big blocks in all for this king size quilt.  Its going to take awhile.  

Happy sewing and embroidering!

MAKING THE QUILT WITH IN THE HOOP QUILT BLOCKS - Part One

Time to start sewing together my quilt.  The blocks are the ones I created using the method described in my previous blog post CREATING QUILT BLOCK USING CONTOUR FILL - STITCH ARTIST 2 or 3. In that blog post I described how I created the contour design.  I have created a Sea Horse, a Sea Turtle, a Fish and a Shell.

I use Stitch Artist by Embrilliance for digitizing embroidery. Its one of the most user friendly programs and there are many many Stitch Artist Videos to help you get started.  The online PDF manual is full of great instruction.  I also used Essentials by Embrilliance to create my applique cut files.  Although you can do this is Stitch Artist, I like saving my cut files with my stitch file.  


I used my Brother Scan N Cut to cut my applique pieces for the design.  Instructions on how to save these applique cut file using Essentials is shown in this video.  I back my applique fabric with Heat N Bond Lite before I cut them with my Scan N Cut.  When I saved my cut file, I inflated them 3 mm, as I am not using a satin stitch finish but a bean stitch to finish.  It's the look that I wanted to achieve on this quilt.

All the quilt blocks will be made IN THE HOOP using the design I created in Stitch Artist 2 or 3, HOWEVER, THE JOINING OF THE BLOCKS IS DONE ON A SEWING MACHINE AND NOT IN THE HOOP.

I am using a 8" x 8" hoop on my Brother Embroidery Machine.  I am using SheerStitch No Show "PolyMesh" Cut Away Stabilizer (1.5), which I purchased through ALLSTITCH.COM  The roll is 15" wide and I use a 15" by 15" piece for each block.  I am using Warm and Natural Cotton batting from JoAnn Fabrics.  I cut my batting in 9" by 9" squares.  

I am using layer cake fabric pieces from Hoffman Fabrics' collection Sandpiper Bali Crackers
which are 10" by 10" square for the background fabric of the top of my block.  I am using 12" by 12" square fabric pieces for the backing fabric.  

I hoop the stabilizer and with the template, I mark the horizontal and vertical centers on the stabilizer with a purple disappearing marker.  Keep in mind to do this right before you are ready to embroider....otherwise the lines will disappear if you wait an hour or so.  I mark my batting so that I can place it on the center of the hoop:

At this point you could add a tackdown stitch for your batting.  I decided not to do this.  I take my top background fabric which is 10" by 10" and lay it on top of the batting.  I pin generously.  

Time to put the hoop in your embroidery machine and start sewing.  

The first thing to stitch is the applique placement stitch.  As I showed in my last blog post, LIGHTING UP YOUR APPLIQUE, using a light box will help you place your applique piece perfectly.  I didn't take close up pictures of the turtle block, so I am showing you the shell block close up.

I get perfect placement of my applique piece.  

Embroider your block until you get to the last step.  This is where you will be adding your backing fabric.  Remove hoop from the machine.  I take my 12" by 12" block, fold it in quarters and lightly press.  I then spray LIGHTLY the back of my hoop with an easy tack spray adhesive.  I lay my backing piece on, matching the creases with the purple center lines I had drawn on my stabilizer:

I pin generously from the front making sure my  backing is smooth.  I return the hoop to the machine and embroider my last step which is a bean stitch on the outline of the applique and a square on the outline of the block:

I remove the block from the hoop.  I trim my backing fabric to 11" by 11" square.  I trim my top background fabric and stabilizer to the size of the batting which is 9" by 9" square.

With my sewing machine I sewed down the edges of the block.  Because this is a 9" by 9" square I couldn't do that in my 8" by 8" hoop.  

To attach the blocks together you place one completed block face down.  You place another block face up and stitch with a one inch seam along the side as shown below with the red line:

I will continue showing how to finish the seams in my next blog.

Happy Embroidering!   To be continue.......