Measuring and Designing Your Bag

When it comes to designing your bag, measuring is important but often how it looks to your eye is more important. As you start sewing, make sure your strap is not twisted that would look good and then I was going to say pin the other side but Wonder clip the other side and let's sew that in place. I'm still using my Teflon foot cuz this vinyl also works better with a Teflon foot.

To begin, lay out all of your pieces according to your design, making sure to line up each piece perfectly. If you're using a new type of fabric or material, make sure to test it out on an old piece first to get a feel for how it works under your machine. This will help you avoid any frustration later on.

For this project, I've chosen to use a rectangular shape for my bag, with two straps that are sewn together at the top. To create these straps, simply cut two long rectangles of vinyl or other material, and then sew them together along the top edge using a straight stitch. Make sure to leave a small opening at the end of each strap so that you can turn it right side out later.

Next, I'll show you how to sew the straps onto your bag. To do this, simply lay your bag right side up on a flat surface, and then thread your machine with the strap fabric. Starting at one end, sew along the edge of the bag using a straight stitch, making sure to keep the strap aligned perfectly as you go. When you reach the other end, pivot your machine around and sew back down again.

Now that our straps are sewn, we're ready to put the whole bag together. This is the final step in our process, and it's definitely the most exciting part. Right sides together, which I know we're kind of hard to tell because it's clear there we go and then take your Wonder Clips again and just clip all the way around the whole bag.

If anything has shifted or gotten off, you can always kind of trim like I can see one of my vinyl pieces just needs to match up a little bit better so just trim it like that. Now we are going to sew from the top down around back up to the top and then comes the really fun part of turning it inside out here.

I'm going to use about a 38 or/ in seam allowance if you had used a stronger heavier gauge of vinyl your machine will definitely be working a little harder to get through all those layers such as if you use is a 12 gauge or something like that but just be patient with your machine and see how it goes I really love some with that 12 gauge also 12 and eight are probably my favorites.

Uh oh, I got a little something stuck in here let's get it out there we go okay now this could be your finished bag you could sew it like this and just leave it and be done but let's flip the whole thing right side out and see how cool it looks.

I'm just going to trim the corners off here so there's a little bit less bulk for the corners as you turn it right side out just make sure you don't cut into your stitching or anything like that. And now comes the really awkward moment of turning this bag right side out I guess it's not awkward it just well it's awkward okay so you just need to kind of smush it around and turn it if you had used a heavier gauge of vinyl this will be even more funny but just do your best and what this is going to do is it's going to kind of crinkle up your paper a little bit but I kind of like that aspect I think it adds a little bit of character to it if you don't like that aspect then you could have just left the bag as it was or sewn Don it on the outside major stitches on the outside okay keep going when you get to the corners you just have to really use your hands to press it through this is like when you're sitting next to someone who's eating a bag of chips just can't wait for them to stop crinkling that's me welcome to made every day.

Finally, once you've turned your bag right side out, take a step back and admire your handiwork. Make any necessary adjustments to the shape or fit of the bag, and then sew any final seams or attach any additional features such as straps or pockets. With these simple steps, you'll be able to create a beautifully designed and functional bag that's all your own.

For more ideas and inspiration, be sure to visit my website madeeveryday.com. And for all of your vinyl Wonder clip and other sewing and craft needs, head to your local Joan store or visit joann.com. I'll see you next time bye.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey it's Dana from made everyday.com and today I want to show you how to take some clear vinyl and turn it into the classic gold jelly tote bag cuz if you didn't come to party don't bother knocking on my door I love working with other Fabrics besides just cotton because there's so many cool things out there and this clear vinyl makes a really fun interesting bag because you can sew artwork inside your children could draw a picture you can find printables online my daughter had a space party and so we found these cool outer space kind of quotes I sewed these and then we gave these to the girls as their take-home gift when they left there are so many different things you can do here's what you need clear vinyl solid colored vinyl for the straps and a fun piece of artwork first thing you need to decide is what kind of artwork you want to use for your bag you can put the artwork on the front and on the back but sometimes I like to leave the back empty so you can see the contents that are inside your bag which is kind of the joy of having a jelly tote bag right these ones you can find on my website go to made everyday.com or look online for different printables different artwork but always check the permission before you print someone else's work and and get your kids involved have them draw a picture or throw in some flowers and leaves that they found on their Adventure there's so many different things that you can do you can print this particular saying here which you know I love a party so I'm going with this one you can print it 11 by 17 or you can print it 8 and 1/2 by 11 just depending on what size bag you want to make okay let's talk about vinyl this is what clear vinyl looks like and I know you're probably thinking it doesn't look very clear that's because there's some tissue paper in between to keep it from sticking to itself until you're ready to sew you can see on some that I've already cut here there's a layer of tissue and then here's the clear vinyl and then there's another layer of tissue I got all these at my local Joan Fabric and Craft Store and as you can see I have two different colors here that's because vinyl comes in different gauges or in different weights this orange one is an eight gauge and it's a little bit on the lighter side which is kind of nice if you're doing the double layer bag like we're going to do this Aqua one is a 12 gauge and it's a little bit heavier I actually really like this one also but it can be a little bit more stiff to work with so if you're starting out for the first time maybe go with the eight gauge they go all the way up to 20 gauge and they're all different color codes if you're not sure which one you're looking for you can always ask an employee for help this kind is also back by the clear vinyl this is the solid colored vinyl it comes in different colors and in some Browns and blacks so many fun choices okay let's cut into our vinyl for your bag you need three pieces of vinyl two for the front and one for the back those front two are going to have your artwork sandwiched in between for a small bag cut your piece pieces 12 x 15 in or for a large bag cut them 15 by 17 now what I find is easiest is to cut a larger piece first and then I can use my cutting mat to trim down and make them a little more precise so I'm using my ruler here and I said 12 by 15 so I'm going to cut that like 16 in and just cut a large piece it's kind of fun cutting vinyl it feels just kind of like you know a little bit like butter okay all the way down like that we'll set this aside okay now I can turn it this way and I can get more precise using my cutting mat my ruler and my rotary cutter so let's cut the edge here okay just like that now I have a nice clean Edge I'm going to cut 12 there we go and then let's cut it the other way so we have 15 okay and then what I like to do is to just kind of lay it on top and cut the others cuz then you don't have to worry about your cutting mat and all that kind of stuff so I just go like that unless you love using your rotary cutter then just keep going when I made these for my daughter's party I think they were like I don't know 10 girls which is why I had those other pieces of vinyl cut I just kind of felt like a factory making all these bags but it was really really fun and I gave each girl a different quote for her bag and since it was a space theme they made little planets out of clay and then they took come their little planet and their bags and it was really quite fun okay we have our three pieces of vinyl for our bag now for the straps what I did I already prepared mine here all I did was I took my solid color vinyl and it vinyl is awesome because it doesn't Fray at the edges so you can just leave your edges raw I cut a long 1in strip folded it in half and I sewed right down you want your straps to be 27 in long or you can make two straps that are 30 in long just depends on what size you want and how you want your bag to hang okay now let's prepare everything and put our artwork inside make sure you have a clean surface before you start because the last thing you want is for a little hair or a little piece of lint to get stuck in between your vinyl layers so start with your first piece pull it over and you want to peel back the tissue paper so it's always like it's kind of when you put something in a picture frame and you're being really careful to not get anything inside the picture frame okay then take your artwork and I like to space mine just a little bit closer down to the bottom than the top because we're going to be creating about a 1in hem at the top like this so keep that in mind as you're spacing your artwork okay and then I'm going to center it on the two sides there perfect okay then I'm going to grab my next piece peel it away awesome and I'll lay that right on top okay it kind of like clings to itself so make sure you're as straight as possible there we go okay and look I have a little something right there get that off okay okay now you could just take it right to your machine like this but if you want to make sure it stays together I love using these little Wonder Clips they are amazing and in fact with vinyl you shouldn't use straight pins like you would with cotton because it will puncture the fabric and leave a hole behind so these little Wonder Clips are great for holding vinyl in place you can these at Joan as well and they come in these little packages they really are wonderful and in fact they're really fun to give as gifts to sewing friends okay we're going to take this over to our machine and we're going to sew right around the piece of artwork vinyl can have a tendency when you're sewing to get kind of stuck under your machine with your standard presser foot so there's a few different things that you can do the first is to use one of these little Teflon presser feet which I really love pretty much any brand in machine you can get a Teflon foot for it and it's just a plastic type of foot that helps the fabric Glide more smoothly if you don't have one of those you could put a little piece of tape under your standard foot and that might help it go through easily or you can even take tissue paper on the outside of both layers sew and then peel the tissue paper back I feel like that sometimes leaves a few little residuals behind so I really love using my Teflon foot so I've got it on there and then I'm also going to increase my Stitch length just a little bit to maybe a three and 1 half Stitch length okay we're ready to go come on over and I'm sewing about an eighth of an inch from the edge of my artwork do a little back stitch and sometimes if it has a little hard time getting to go just use both hands and kind of you don't want to tug your fabric but you can just help it get through okay so all the way down when you get to the end leave your needle in place lift your presser foot and then you can just pivot around okay awesome look at that it's looking great already okay now we're going to sew the Hem of our bag the top hem so we're just going to take our Fabric and fold it under about an inch you can make it smaller than that whatever you want and then you just want a finger press you don't want to use an iron on vinyl or it will melt you could actually take maybe a piece of fabric or a pressed cloth a teac cloth something like that over the top and use an iron on a warm setting but you always want to test that before you do something on your fabric to see how it reacts but for this project I don't think you need to use an iron you just kind of want to use your fingers to press it in place and then we can sew I'm using my Wonder Clips again to kind of keep it from shifting while I'm sewing and go back to your machine make sure there's nothing in between looks like I have a little thread there we go okay forward and back stitch and then sew right down oh there we go it's getting a little bit stuck there we go and I'm using a white thread you could use any kind of color thread you want you can even buy clear thread if you don't want it to show up very much I kind of like how the white looks though okay let's see how it looks there we go that looks really nice okay now let's grab the other side of the bag and do the top hem as well okay just fold it over I'm going to do my Wonder Clips again and you might want to hold them next to each other to see if you're getting it oh look this one's a little bit shorter let me come up a little bit okay that's good and now let's sew this one in place okay and you want to make sure you trim all of your little hanging threads off of here because they will show up since this is clear so just make sure you're looking good everywhere oh here's some more over here okay now we're going to attach our straps before we sew the bag together that is kind of sounds backwards but it's easier to do that now than to do it later so like I said I've already premade my little straps here they're 27 in long and I like to start with the front of the bag first let's put the back aside okay I like to kind of Center them with the artwork but you know whatever looks good to your eyeball that's what I have found also is that measuring is important but often how it looks to your eye is more important okay make sure your strap is not Twisted that looks good and then I was going to say pin the other side but Wonder clip the other side and let's sew that in place I'm still using my Teflon foot cuz this vinyl also works better with a Teflon foot and what I want to do is I'm going to sew a little tiny rectangle around the end of the strap there so first go down turn and sometimes when you're sewing with vinyl it might be easier to sew backwards or forwards depending on how your fabric is working under your machine if you have a really stiff vinyl it might not work to stick it under your machine like I just did meaning I'll show you in a second for this next part I'm just going to sew backward like this there we go and then I'll pivot and turn and so forward again okay let's do the other side go down then like I said I'm going to go backwards okay as you can see I've just made a little rectangle around the strap and that's going to really reinforce it it make it nice and strong okay now let's sew the other strap grab your back of your bag and I like to lay it right on top so that I can make sure they're lined up precisely and at the same spot even though they're the same length you can always get a little bit off okay there we go start with the first one and I'll put it right there clip it in place and then I like to kind of just lay it right on top of the other strap to make sure they're exactly the same length there we go perfect and then come right over to our machine and do the exact same thing okay now that our straps are sewn we're ready to put the whole bag together I mean this is the final step that's kind of the fun thing about sewing your straps on earlier by the time you put the bag together it's all really exciting okay right sides together which I know we're kind of hard to tell because it's clear there we go and then take your Wonder Clips again and just clip all the way around the whole bag and if anything has shifted or gotten off you can always kind of trim like I can see one of my vinyl pieces just needs to match up a little bit better so just trim it like that and now we are going to sew from the top down around back up to the top and then comes the really fun part of turning it inside out here I'm going to use about a 38 or/ in seam allowance if you had used a stronger heavier gauge of vinyl your machine will definitely be working a little harder to get through all those layers such as if you use is a 12 gauge or something like that but just be patient with your machine and see how it goes I really love some with that 12 gauge also 12 and eight are probably my favorites uh oh I got a little something stuck in here let's get it out there we go okay now this could be your finished bag you could sew it like this and just leave it and be done but let's flip the whole thing right side out and see how cool it looks okay I'm just going to trim the corners off here so there's a little bit less bulk for the corners as you turn it right side out just make sure you don't cut into your stitching or anything like that and now comes the really awkward moment of turning this bag right side out I guess it's not awkward it just well it's awkward okay so you just need to kind of smush it around and turn it if you had used a heavier gauge of vinyl this will be even more funny but just do your best and what this is going to do is it's going to kind of crinkle up your paper a little bit but I kind of like that aspect I think it adds a little bit of character to it if you don't like that aspect then you could have just left the bag as it was or sewn Don it on the outside major stitches on the outside okay keep going when you get to the corners you just have to really use your hands to press it through this is like when you're sitting next to someone who's eating a bag of chips just can't wait for them to stop crinkling that's me welcome to made every day okay we're almost done here and there we go let's turn it around Tada look at that you made a really cool jelly tote bag one that I think Prince would be proud of for more ideas you can visit my website made everyday.com and for all of your vinyl Wonder clip and other sewing and craft needs head to your local Joan store or visit joann.com I'll see you next time bye oh\n"