[electronic music] [gentle upbeat music] - Welcome.

Today's project will be handbags with a look at wall hangings, also.

We've explored what to do with our patchwork blocks when we're working with pillows.

And I think it'd be fun to look at some other smaller projects.

I'm reminded of one of my student's husband who always is saying to Sally, "Sally, you just keep making pillows.

"Have you realized that if you put those pillows together "you'd have a quilt?"

Well, what he doesn't realize is that making small projects like handbags and pillows is instant gratification.

And it's something we can do in a day or two.

So we'll be exploring that.

Did you remember to cut out your two pieces of 3 inches wide by 10 inch?

If you haven't get busy and do that.

So we want to show how to put this together into a handbag.

And then you'll have something to kind of hang onto as an instructional guide for you later on.

Before we do that, I want to refresh our memory about basic nine patch.

And of course we could make even a mini nine patch with our little tiny pattern.

But also keep in mind that with our nine patch as in the Shoo Fly, we want to always work in rectangles.

In this particular pattern, four times we would sew our triangles together to make a square.

Then by sewing this into a rectangle, we would sew one section to the next, always remembering, in this case, to stagger our seams toward the dark, wouldn't we?

So that would be our Shoo Fly pattern.

It would use the square and the triangle.

Let's remember the Jacobs Ladder pattern uses the little tiny square and also borrows this basic nine patch triangle again.

And once again, I'd line up, after you have, of course, your four patches sewn together, line up rectangles, sew those together.

Then also our Ohio Star.

That's another pattern where each time we would get our triangle sewn together first.

And that uses the square and the little triangle.

Also, our 54-40 or Fight, which is very similar to the Jacobs Ladder, isn't it?

But we have these two triangular pieces.

And those can be inserted like so.

Or we could even have a whole other look with a large point going that way, couldn't we?

But get your rectangle sewn together.

This is basically what we would use in the Shoo Fly pattern, but it ends up looking like a spool pattern, doesn't it?

A whole nother arrangement of that nine patch.

Also, keep in mind that the secret and the technique used for our handbags will be sewing three blocks together.

Now, you will have an extra block that is inserted in between.

And I've got that down on paper and it's also in the study guide, but you will be having three blocks.

And then this bottom one becomes the bottom of your handbag.

In other words, you will be putting, and this is an idea for you, this is some counted cross stitch that says, quilting is my bag, and that's in the Ohio Star.

That will be the front of your bag.

This will be the back.

And this will be the inside part.

And you insert that little 3 1/2 inch by 12 1/2 inch, so that forms the bottom of your bag.

And you will be, each one block could be different, or you could do one and have all of 'em the same.

Here's the same idea, all sewn together.

Three pinwheel patterns.

And your next step of course will be to take your batting, cut the same size, and a piece of backing.

Now, this is not gonna be the permanent lining in your bag, so you could just simply put that into...

It could be pieced or anything.

And those will all be layered.

And then you'll quilt those together.

Now I wanna take a look and kind of refresh our memory in the sewing room about crazy patch, okay?

The reason we look at crazy patch is because it's so ideally suited for small projects, especially using leftover plaids and silks.

We had our lesson before in crazy patch, remember how we worked on a foundation piece, and we would always go ahead and incorporate the sewing machine when possible.

And it was a sew and flip process.

In other words, it didn't make any difference whether we started building this block in the middle or in a corner.

But we did use a sewing machine and we would sew and flip.

And then at this point we would put embroidery stitches on our block.

Well, the same idea can be used only making a rectangle.

And I'll show you when we get to the table in a few minutes.

Also, if we study some of the old blocks that we've had, you can see how they've used leftover ribbon.

And we can study these and see how they still used a foundation piece.

And this is kind of in the same family.

It's called a string quilt.

This was actually very much like the hexagon built on paper.

And you can see that the sewing machine has actually connected fabric to the paper.

And we can see this in Inez Bird's entire quilt.

I think she's done a very, has a very bright folk look to it.

And what she has done, she has actually lap quilted this into blocks.

We can look on the back and see where the hand piecing is.

But she simply cut out, instead of paper, she used muslin, And she has done her what is known as string quilts by mounting this, and then it's been machine sew and flip, machine sew and flip.

Then on the backside you can simply take the scissors and having that muslin as a foundation, go ahead and trim that off.

And then do your basic nine patch, quilt it, and put 'em together.

Remember also that I finished a whole quilt using the denim.

And of course an exact opposite medium in using denim fabric versus the taffeta, but this is a great quilt for a boy to take to college.

Let's go to our sewing table and see exactly what I mean.

Let's realize once again that we're going to have three blocks.

And that this insert in the bottom forms the bottom of our purse.

In other words, if we didn't have that there, we're gonna lose part of our purse and part of our block.

That is the bottom of our purse.

Now, if we were going to do the same idea with, say, crazy patch, decide how big or how small a purse you want and cut out the foundation.

Then place the batting on top of it.

And then here is our same idea that was done with a big quilt only done with a small purse, but it's called a string quilt using calicos and velvets.

We have laid the velvet down.

We have put the right sides together, sewed through and flipped.

And you can actually see the machine sewing on the backside.

Then I've come back and with some metallic gold and silver thread, I've put a feather stitch every place that your different fabric has connected.

This will end up being a little evening bag.

And then you remember our large bag.

This has been all quilted.

Remember I said to baste your three layers together.

Here is one that's all quilted, ready to go.

This will be on the flap, our sailboat.

On the backside will be the formal garden.

This is the base of our purse and this is the double four patch.

So you want to cut out a lining.

Remember I said you don't have to hide your knots.

That's going to be hidden inside.

Cut out a lining and that will go right sides together.

And that should be the same size as your whole rectangle.

And then I think an important step and feature here is on the backside, with a yardstick or a ruler, draw yourself a 1/4-inch seam allowance.

Can you see a 1/4-inch seam allowance has been drawn all the way around this rectangle.

Also right here where the flap starts, put a line.

You know you're gonna start sewing here, back stitch, and come all the way around to the other side.

This becomes the flap of your purse.

And let's go to the sewing table and show you.

Make sure if you had a lot of fullness when you quilted, make sure that you kind of baste that down.

I like to get it pinned well.

And it wouldn't hurt hand basting it also right through there.

By the way, this lining that I'm using is a lightweight vinyl.

And of course it resists soil and markings.

And I would recommend a dark denim or something that is not gonna show dirt.

Even for this little handbag, I've used a darker calico.

Let's go to the sewing table and see how this is all constructed.

Now I have my little sample that I wanted to show you.

And we'll keep this right on hand to make sure that you can see exactly how that is done.

But first time around, we've got our two right sides together.

Everything out of the way.

Machine is on.

And I'm going to sew first off the flap.

And I'm starting right where I, right where that block started.

Now, if I were doing an evening purse, I would've, on the backside, I would've kind of maybe estimated exactly what I wanted.

How far did I want that flap to go?

And you can see on the backside where I've marked that.

In other words, that's a shorter flap because that's gonna be an evening bag, isn't it?

Let me kind of give you an idea what I mean here.

Here's the inside, there's the back, and this will be the flap.

Does that kind of give you an idea?

So you know that, of course, you wouldn't make your purse have the flap hang down.

That would be ridiculous, and you wouldn't have your flap be that tiny.

You kind of wanna gauge it, kind of gauge how far you want the flap to come down.

And it's this marking back here that will give you that idea.

[sewing machine whirring] All right, I'm going to machine sew the two right sides together all the way down.

[sewing machine whirring] And of course, when I get to the corner, because this is a square block, I want to make sure [sewing machine whirring] that my needle is down in the corner and in the fabric.

Make my turn.

[sewing machine whirring] Quite often if I have an evening bag and it has a curved lid, I'll use a protractor or a plate even to give you that nice curved edge.

[sewing machine whirring] Also on this flap, because we have 12 inches hanging down, I really don't think it's necessary [sewing machine whirring] to have any kind of a loop down there.

But on an evening bag, it is real nice.

And I wanna show you in just a minute, kind of a tricky way of making a loop.

[sewing machine whirring] All right, I'm coming to that block, and I'm going to backstitch.

Now, an important step here is to clip right into that machine stitching.

And then I would trim off all the excess that I can.

Oh, say down to a 1/4 of an inch, all the way around on all three sides.

I won't do it on all in the essence of time here.

And then clip right into that notch.

And what's gonna happen there is then you're gonna turn your bag inside out.

And the flap on your bag is all taken care of.

Now you'll need to poke that out.

And I like to use a wooden pointer of some sort because you want true corners there.

You don't want anything that looks rounded.

So you'll have to, don't be tempted to use your scissors.

It might go all the way through the fabric.

Now, this next step I really can't do right now because it does take some handwork.

But this is the look that you're going to have.

And go ahead and do that on your little piece of fabric that you have handy.

Let's see, I've got it here somewhere, that little... Oh, excuse me, fell on the floor.

Here it is, the little piece that you're working on.

Go ahead and either pin or machine stitch this all the way around.

Turn that inside out.

That becomes and is gonna look just like this little piece, isn't it?

See how this comes out at a right angle?

Your flap is taken care of.

Now your next step, and do it on your little mock sample here.

You're going to take your quilted part back just like we're going to do.

And because this is the base of our purse, let's do that midway.

Let's let that meet all the way like so.

And on both sides let that meet.

And then I'll go ahead and just pin that right here.

And I'll pin it on the other side also.

Then I'm gonna turn my purse over, and I'm gonna do the same thing to the lining.

Come all the way back.

And that's gonna meet at the same place.

Do it on your little mock sample.

And when you pin that back, make sure it comes up and hangs over.

In other words, there should be that 1/4 of an inch that will come over where the top is.

Do you follow me there?

Let that come all the way up over.

All right, then go ahead and pin both sides of your little mock sample.

And you could even machine stitch this just as I'm going to on the bag.

Or better still, I have one that's already been stitched right here.

You see what we've done here?

This is an evening bag.

And can you see the handwork that I've done around here?

That's an important feature here that I, of course, do not have time to do.

But with quilting thread, I would go all the way around through.

What it does is it keeps this from happening, it keeps that lining from sagging, which looks kind of bad.

The same thing on the evening bag.

Then I turn the quilted part back and I turn the lining back, just the way I've done here.

Then machine stitch on each side.

Now when you machine stitch... Now let me, I wanna make sure you understand this.

It is nice, if you want to, put a zipper foot on your sewing machine because you see this point right here, where that right angle came out?

You want to get very close to that.

That's awful nice to do.

Just as we've done here.

You see how I've gotten very close there and machine stitched all the way on both sides through four layers.

One, two, three, four.

I would machine stitch down here and machine stitch down here.

Let's go ahead and pin this one in place.

And then the more formal bag with the silk and the taffeta I have already sewn.

And I can simply invert that and I'll show you what I mean.

But it is important.

Now your sewing machine will take the weight of this.

It really is not that bulky.

All the way up here.

Now pretend we have sewn this.

This is the part where you will simply turn this all the way around inside out.

And what's happening is you're revealing your whole bag.

And it's already done.

Where your hand is now is in the lining, isn't it, in here?

But if you come in this way and in the purse itself, you can peek in and see that you have no raw edges.

It's all taken care of.

And basically your handbag is done.

You need some finishing touches, but you see how nicely you form the base here?

I wanna show you the few finishing touches on one that's already been sewn.

You'll come here and turn it inside out and push your corners out straight.

And you see I'm in where the lining is?

Now if you come this way, and I'll turn those raw edges in towards each other.

Then I'll do some handwork here.

Now you can keep your bag flat, but I think it's nice, once this has been hand sewn along here, I think it's nice to reach in here and push out what we call one of those little dog ears.

And then sometimes, you can either do it by hand or you can do it on the machine, come across here and form a little triangle there.

Do you see how that allows this purse...?

It gives it a base.

And you can see the embroidery work on that, the silks.

And that becomes the base.

Let's look, also the same idea with the Dresden Plate was done.

And this one was one long rectangle of fabric.

And that becomes the base.

You can even reach in and see the triangular point where it's been machine stitched all the way across.

Another idea, you could do the same thing only with denim and come up with a more rustic looking bag.

This one is a backpack with leftover denim.

The same idea.

Here, I wanted to take a few minutes and show you how to do a fin and feather stitch.

I think that that is one that you see is more outstanding than any other stitch in the crazy patch.

And to me, I'll put a thimble on here.

And just give you an idea, I like to use three strands of embroidery thread.

And of course you'd be working on your crazy patch at this point.

But of course you'd come up in between.

I'll just kind of refresh your memory.

I hope you've explored all the fun embroidery stitches.

The feather stitch to me is nice because it grabs a little bit of fabric on the right and then on the left.

You come up in the middle.

And with your needle coming towards you, it goes in a little bit below the thread and comes out towards the center.

And always use your thumb to hold that down.

Comes all the way through.

The same idea only you have to kind of turn your hand this way a little bit, comes over here.

The thread goes in the blue side now all the way down, and you pull through.

All right, now I'm gonna go on the right side.

The thread going in a little bit below where the, the needle going in a little bit below where the thread has come out, but always coming up in the middle.

Do you see?

And you'll just continue in this manner.

There are many variations on this stitch, but I like to use it because it does take fabric from each side and brings it toward the center.

And if you change colors of embroidery thread, you get a whole entirely different look.

Also, I wanted to now keep this on hand.

And you could go ahead and machine stitch this knowing that that is your key for how your little pocketbook is sewn together.

Actually, if you finish this, it could be a little coin purse inside your regular purse, couldn't it?

I wanted to show you one more little tip that is really nice.

You've noticed on the evening bags, there are little loops.

If you would cut yourself a bias piece, no more than an inch or an inch and a half wide.

And machine sew that all the way down.

And I like to, not too narrow, but it does have to be on the bias.

If you, perhaps, on your sewing machine have that knit lock stitch that goes back and forth, use that.

Or put your stitches up to 15 or 20 stitches per inch so you've got a very tight stitch.

Then removing that and trimming a little bit of it off.

It won't hurt to have a little bit of a seam allowance because that's gonna add bulk in there.

Take a large needle that you have threaded.

And I think a double thread is nice.

And put it through one layer of your bias.

And then I like to do it again and kind of make a loop.

Now that's a really big needle.

And then put the eye of the needle right down inside and kind of scoot it all the way through.

To me, this is the easiest way to go ahead and make those loops.

Come all the way through.

And then if you'll just kind of yank it a little bit, it'll turn, it'll invert inside out.

And then you have a nice little loop.

It needs to get started.

And it works a lot better if you're working with your silk fabric.

You'll find that it slides very nicely.

But once it gets going, you can see you have a little biased loop that then... Of course when you fix that, put your seam two allowances together.

You can see it both on this one, and of course on this one, all three of them.

And I think it's a nice way you can put a jewel button or even a pearl button at the end.

And that's a nice finishing touch for your handbags.

Remember that you can crochet, if you'd like to, a handle that you could put.

You could make a self, even... For instance, like we have in the tote bag, a flat handle if you wanted to out of fabric.

Or you could crochet out of macrame cord, a long cord, which would then be sewn inside your handbag.

And that is simply chaining on 50 crochet, single crochets.

And then single crochet down.

And then when you come to the end, crochet around that and come back.

So you really have two single crochets on a single chain on.

Let's take a look now at wall hangings.

A nice decorator touch would be to turn your blocks into mini wall hangings.

And I like to do that by enclosing the raw edges much the way we did the placemats.

Do you remember how we put the two right sides together, sewed all the way around, and left an opening?

That's the same way I would do.

Of course, if you were making a big wall hanging, say 16 blocks, you could go ahead and lap quilt it.

Let's look at some vertical and then horizontal wall hangings.

This would be, for instance, a vertical wall hanging with a quilted loop or a hanger up that would, of course a wooden pole could go in.

This just makes a statement that you've studied traditional patchwork, and maybe this is the color scheme in your house.

Then there would be a horizontal arrangement where you could hang a wooden pole through.

I've even weighted this one with a chain down below so it hangs nicely.

The same idea could be done, for instance, maybe your son was an Eagle Scout.

Becky Neely, a friend of mine, has done a marvelous display of all of her son's badges through the Scout program.

And rather than keeping it tucked away in a drawer somewhere, I think she's done a beautiful job by incorporating patchwork blocks and the different badges.

On the backside, she's even used the kerchiefs that he wore and had as a Boy Scout.

I think that's marvelous.

I wanna show you how to do the quilted loops.

You would simply take your muslin and putting two right sides together, and enclosing some batting along with it.

I like to machine stitch on the long side.

Now this could be a wider loop such as this, or it could be a narrow one.

Then you'll simply turn it inside out.

And I have one already turned inside out.

And then quilt that.

Go ahead and pre-quilt that loop.

Then folding it knowing that your wooden pole would fit through that.

Come and place this on the top of your wall hanging.

Now this will be a vertical wall hanging.

And I've even taken some brown embroidery thread and have with free hand drawn the name of each block underneath it.

And then I have set these three brown blocks much as you would in old fashioned quilt.

It's called setting or putting in, by having each one have a piece of muslin in between it.

Then I would, of course, I'd make sure that all three loops were done and pinned to the top.

And they would hang down, wouldn't they?

Remember the technique, how they would hang down.

Then I would go ahead and decide on the backing and the batting for my wall hanging.

I think the batting gives it dimension, doesn't it?

And pin these two together.

You could even baste them together.

Then working on a flat surface, you wanna make sure that you're on a flat surface.

Line these up so they all, so this comes out even and it all is flat.

And then I'd baste that real well all the way around.

And then machine sew.

Of course, it would be nice with a ruler to give yourself a 1/4-inch seam allowance, wouldn't it, on this side?

Never machine stitch on this side where you have your batting because the needle's gonna get caught in that.

But machine stitch all the way around following a line that you would draw, leaving an opening, I'd say maybe three to four inches.

Trim any raw edges, turn it inside out.

And then you have your wall hanging ready to quilt.

It needs a lot of basting of course, but this would be handsome, quilted even in brown embroidery thread.

Do you remember the moon over the mountain pattern?

That was a fun one.

I wanted to show you something that could be done with that same idea in a wall hanging.

Here, we have four blocks, all the same pattern, the same moon over the mountain.

But each one of course represents the four seasons.

And here it is another one that I'm working on.

And it kind of gives you an idea of what you'd be doing.

It's at this point when your block is completed that you'd start doing the embroidery work to fill in your garden for your summer, of course.

And then I've even made some little moon over the mountains that are five inches.

But you would of course be sewing these blocks to your strips and then forming your whole quilt.

Putting the back together the same way and turning it inside out.

Here is an idea for moon over the mountain that you might enjoy.

I think since we've already studied string quilts today, what about cutting the mountain out of a piece of muslin and then taking your leftover greens and just laying them down?

Sew and flip and sew and flip.

Let me arrange this.

And I think you can see what an interesting look you'd get by using the different calicos.

And remember, your moon fits in just like this, much the way the drunkard's path would fit in.

And when you're sewing this, what you end up with, of course, is getting each one of your triangles put together.

Sew your moon or your sun into this figure first, wouldn't you?

Then you have four triangles.

So those two triangles together and then those two.

And you'd have your whole block put together.

We will start our next show by taking a look at what to do with wall hangings if you want to hang large things on the wall.

I have a couple of hints.

Of course, we'd never wanna use rusty pins or nails, so I have a couple of hints for you there.

And then we want to turn to novelty-type quilts, which will be the cathedral quilt.

And I'd like you to have a 10 inch square of either muslin or some sort of fabric on hand when I show you the cathedral quilt.

We'll see you next time.

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