Frankenbag Tutorial - With Pics
1. Cut out pieces A, B and C. Cut both A pieces in half top to bottom evenly to make 4 pieces. You should have the following pieces:
2. Take 2 opposite pieces of A and a piece of B and pin them together to make one large piece.
3. At this point I overlock them all together and have allowed for approx 1 cm on each side for a seam.
4. Do the same with the other side.
5. You may want to press them at this point to flatten out the seams, which makes it easier for applying the fusible interfacing.
6. Cut the interfacing out a little larger than the piece to allow for some shrinkage when you apply the iron.
7. Iron briefly all over to adhere the interfacing, then trim off the excess and press well and along the edges.
8. Now you should have 2 reasonably stiff pieces. It is useful at this point to use these as the stencil for the lining. Cut 2 pieces of D from your lining fabric and set aside.
9. Pin the 2 stiff pieces right sides together, and sew along the bottom.
10. Once you have sewn along the bottom, you can sew along the sides.
11. Now you need to box in the bottom corners as so, and sew along them.
You should now hopefully have something that looks like this.
It is helpful at this point to take a break to do something like make a cup of tea, or in my case remove the half a cupcake which has been ground into the carpet by a 2 year old.
12. Now you need to piece the lining together like you did in step 9 with the other pieces.
13. You should be able to sit the lining inside the stiff outer like so. If you can, great! You’re doing well.
14. Fold down the outside rim of the bag to make a nice even crease – this makes it easier when seaming the top. I find it helpful to pin these down too.
15. Do the same on the opposite side with the lining and pin together.
16. Now for the straps. You should have 2 pieces of fabric left over (C) from when you did your cutting. These need to be turned into tubes, so you need to get cracking on the overlocker again. Fold over and sew into a tube, and then along one end so you can turn them right way out.
17. Turning is always better when done with a purple knitting needle.
18. I like to topstitch the straps at this point to make them look nicer, though you could just give them a jolly good iron and they should be OK.
19. Feed the straps in to the top of the bag and pin them in place. Make sure they are even on each side!
20. Now for the really fun bit – top stitching. You might want to take a deep breath before you do this. Top stitch around the top of the bag, running back over where the straps join a couple of times to make them nice and secure.
21. Last steps! Now the last thing is to attach the snaps. I use a snap press with resin snaps, but you could use a button or manually attach snaps, or however you want to do it. I find this the easiest way.
DONE! Voila, you now have a beautiful Frankenbag. Make sure you tell anyone who compliments you where you got the tute from :)
