Re: PLEATNESS BAGS!

« Reply #96 on: August 30, 2007 06:38:46 PM »

The material: I like to use strong cotton for the outer parts and medium weight fabric for
the pleated parts. The liner is just good old fashioned cotton.

The pattern:

The steps:

Step one: We’ll start with the pleating. Take one of the pleat material and one front
topper parts and fold both in half, marking the center front with a pin. The top will act
as a guide as you pleat. Go about 1 inch out from the center and make the first pleat.
Continue pleating until the pleat material length matches the length of the front topper.
This should take about 4-6 pleats depending on your pleating mood and how many you
are willing to pleat. Ok, so do the same thing to the other half of the pleat material.
Here's the pictures to help.
Step two: repeat step one with the other pleat material for the other side. Now pin the
front topper to the top of the pleat material and sew. Do the same for the other side.

Step three: Now for the straps. Take the strap material and fold it in half. Press it and
fold the 2 raw edges over inside about 1 inch, making a strap that’s around 1 inch. Press
it again and then sew all the way down the unfolded edge. Do the same for the other
strap. It should look like this:
Step four: Pin the strap ends onto the front pleated part 2 inches from the end. Sew the
strap on in a rectangular fashion, going all the way up till you have sewn about 1 inch
past the pleated part and on the front topper, then around and back down again. Do the
same for all the other strap ends on the other side. It should look something like this:

Step five: Attach the bottom piece to the bottom of the pleated part by pinning each
pleat in place. Sew and then repeat for the other side.
Step six: Now it’s pocket time! Take the pocket piece and fold under half an inch and
then again. Press and sew this part then again for the other pocket piece. Gosh so many
pieces. Ok place those pocket pieces and pin them and the side pieces to the side of the
bottom pieces. Sew and repeat.

Step seven: Ok, almost there I promise. Now you want to attach the sides and pocket
pieces to the front part. Just pin the sides together and sew and repeat for the other side.
There will probably be a little extra fabric on the top of the sides, I just put this there so
that in case some of my cutting or stitching went a little awry, I could still fix it with the
bit of extra fabric and make it all line up as best as possible.

Step eight: Flip everything out so that now you’ve got something that looks like this!
Yay!
Step nine: Now for the zipper part. Take the zipper pieces and fold them in half and
press. Just like the straps fold in the raw edges and press again. Now put a 14” zipper in
between the 2 folds you just made. Sew this and do the same for the other side of the
zipper. Then it should look like this:

Step ten: You’re so close, almost there. Assemble and sew all the liner pieces together
just like the outer pieces. Set that aside for a second, go to the outer and fold over/pin
the raw edges using where you stopped sewing on the straps as a guide. Now take the
liner and pin that to the inside of the bag, folding over the raw edges.

Step eleven: Now pin the zippered top to the top part of the bag, matching the liner and
outer part together. Sew all this together on the front and back, leaving the sides open.
Then flip the bag inside out one last time and sew up the sides.
Step twelve: Congratulate yourself on making such an awesome bag. Then take a
picture and post it here because I really want to see what you guys come up with.

Please don’t sell this bag or pattern, it’s my own design and I’m trusting it to my
fellow craftsters to keep it safe and treat it well. Thanks so much.

-lindsay
:-D BAGS, DESIGN, & PHOTOGRAPHY @
my website: http://www.loverlyink.com/

my etsy shop: http://www.loverlyink.etsy.com/

my blog: http://www.heartasaurus.blogspot.com