Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Christina's Erin Bag and Erin Bag Construction

Laurie G. asked about construction of the Erin Bag and how I put the lining in.
I read on several blogs that sewing doesn't work so well with these so I glue mine in with fabric glue. The bag below is the one I just completed for my nephew's wife. These little bags are all the rage with the female population of my family. They're all keeping track of who got what and how many and in what colors. Phew! The pressure!
















The photo below is Meghan's little bag. What I do with the lining is cut a piece of fabric the exact size of the blocked piece of knitting. Then I take both the lining, and the knitted piece to the ironing board. I then iron a little hem the whole way around so that the lining fits just inside the piece, leaving enough room to sew the side seams. Obviously, I glue the wrong side of the lining to the wrong side of the knitted piece. Then, after the glue dries, I fold the purse in half, right sides together, and sew the side seams up, leaving one inch open at the top of both sides so you have a little big of an opening and can get you hands down in the purse.












The fabric glue can be purchased at JoAnn Fabrics. It's almost $5.00 a bottle which sort of amazes me, but it lasts a long time. I've probably gotten about 7 purses out of this bottle.















The glue really sticks the fabric to the purse. I have learned that it works best on light color knitting. When you use black or navy, unfortunately, you can see the glue. If I had any of those food service plastic gloves to do this, I would. It gets on your fingers and it's hard to get off. Do it on newspaper or something disposable. That stuff is for real!


The inside of Christina's bag. This is one I'd really like to keep for myself!!

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Thanks for the detailed instructions! Just one more question: where do you get the handles?

Yvonne said...

You are the bag queen. I'll bet if you approached a shop or two they'd sell them. Then you'd be in trouble. You and Cate would have to work overtime to get them all done!!