Square Bag With A Sling: Drawing Up A Pattern & Cutting Out Part 1 of 4

I love making handbags and every so often I bring out a new exclusive range. It became time again for a new range, and even though I was doing some relief teaching at the time, I decided to devote some of my time to this project. In this blog I show you how I went to draw up the pattern for the bag and then I show you how to cut out the fabric. In the following blogs I'll show you how to sew the bags, but also how to paint the funky designs that went onto the bags.

I designed the patterns on A3 paper and started off by deciding on the size for the main panel of the bag.

I then measured how long a stretch of fabric I would need to make the bottom and sides of the bag. I drew the pattern up accordingly.

Next up was the panels for the zipper and the inside pockets of the bag.

Lastly, I designed the sling.

This is what the pattern pieces looked like laid out side by side.

Some of the pieces needed to be extended and I did this with double-sided tape.

The pattern made provision for the overlap needed to extend the pattern pieces.

I cut enough fabric to make four bags. Two of these would have painted panels. I therefore cut 4 main panels from 100% cotton sheeting. Blended fabrics are not as colour fast as pure fabrics and the extra expense is well worth it.

I cut two more main panels from this lovely upholstery fabric.

This last two of the main panels were cut from this feminine 100% sheeting.

The bottom and sides were cut from a sturdy black upholstery fabric.

The slings were also cut from this.

The zipper panels were cut from the black.

With the exception of the slings, all of the pattern pieces above were also cut from lining. The inside pockets of the bag were only cut from the lining. In the following blog I will show you how to construct the bags.

Once the bags are made, they look like this on the inside...

... and like this on the outside.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
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