It’s Day Eighteen of National Sewing Month! Don’t forget to visit our blog every day to enter to win our daily prize from Coats & Clark. Find the contest rules and enter below. Also look out below for details on how to receive additional entries for our National Sewing Month grand prize from BERNINA! Too see the daily blog posts, projects of the day, and more National Sewing Month details, click here.
Hi! I’m Gloria from Domestic-Divaonline.com and I’m so happy to have been invited to celebrate National Sewing Month with you on this blog. Thank you FaveCrafts! In honor of this event I’m sharing a fun new project which I call, The Little Belt Bag. The strap is actually one of my belts. I like this design of this bag because it’s convertible. I can wear the bag hanging from my shoulder or remove the belt and carry the bag like a clutch. And when the bag isn’t hanging from my shoulder, I have another belt to wear! There are other great features like the fact that it opens flat for packing and it has outer pockets to hold items you want to access quickly. It’s the perfect size bag for when you don’t want to carry all those things you haul around daily. I’m taking mine on vacation this month. Look for a belt in your closet and give this project a try!
What You’ll Need
A thin belt
Faux Leather Vinyl
Faux Suede
Lining Fabric
Fleece
Fusible Interfacing
1” Flat Webbing
Two Magnetic Clasps
.25” Flat Brass Wire (optional)
Cut the fabric in the following sizes:
Faux Suede and interfacing – top bag trim 18” x 3.25”, pocket lining 8” x 6.25”
Faux Leather – pocket 8” x 6”, belt casing 6.50” x 1.25”, outer bag 8” x 13” (two pieces)
Lining and interfacing – 8” x 12” (two pieces)
Fleece – 8” x 5.5”
Webbing – 6” x 1”
NOTE: The seams on this project are .25” to eliminate bulk and the need for trimming.
Finished bag measures approximately 6.50” x 6” with the flap closed.
1) Sew the short ends of the webbing to the belt casing. The webbing will give the casing support and allow the belt to glide between it easily.
2) On the right side of the vinyl, place a horizontal piece of painter’s tape four inches from the top of the vinyl. Align the long edge of the casing with the tape, centering it with equal spacing on the left and right.
3) Sew the casing to the vinyl. My belt is .75” wide. If yours is wider, increase the size of the casing to match. Be sure all the metal on your belt will fit through the casing.
4) If my pocket looks like it’s pieced together, that’s because it is. I made this bag with scraps from another project and didn’t have one piece big enough to cut out the pocket. I turned this potential problem into a design opportunity and top-stitched the pieced seams open. I like way it added to the finished look of the bag.
Sew the right side of the suede pocket to the right side of the vinyl pocket. Turn the suede to the wrong side of the vinyl. The seam becomes the horizontal trim and the rest of the suede becomes the pocket lining. Pin the two pieces together and top-stitch close to the seam.
5) Determine the pocket widths you want and sew the pocket to the vinyl piece with vertical top-stitching. I created a space for my iPhone, for my business cards, and for a pen. You can personalize your bag to suit your needs.
6) To create one side seam for the bag, place the second vinyl piece on top of the first with right sides together. Sew a .25” seam through all of the layers. Lay the work flat.
7) Sew the top suede trim across the entire width of the vinyl, both front and back pieces. This will be folded over to create the top trim later.
8) Stitch one side seam of the interfaced lining. Sew the lining to the suede piece.
9) Sew one side seam on the fleece pieces. Lay it across the lining with the bottoms matching and sew the fleece to the lining.
10) Fold the work in half, pin together, and sew the second side seam.
11) Temporarily turn the lining into the vinyl to check placement for the clasps. The top fold of the bag will create a one-inch suede trim. Place the matching clasp hardware inside the two trims pictured (red arrows). This will hold the large opening closed. The prongs for this clasp should only pierce through the suede layer inside the bag. An additional clasp holds the bag flap down. Half of that clasp is attached to the outside trim (green arrow) with the other half attached to the outside of the pocket. All of the clasp pieces are centered vertically on the bag and each should have a .75” square of thick cardboard between the clasp and the fabric when attached. This will give support and make the clasp easier to fasten.
12) Once all clasps are attached, stitch around the top of the bag .25” from the trim.
13) Pull the lining out of the bag. Stitch it together to close the bottom lining, as well as the fleece by turning the raw edges in .25”. Stuff the closed lining back into the bag.
14) Chances are you don’t have the same belt I do so you won’t be adding the metal piece on the flap that I did, but it was created simply by cutting the wire to 2” long then folding the ends into 90 degree angles. I cut little slits in the suede, inserted the wire ends, then folded them with pliers to squeeze the fabric and hold them in place. I liked that the wire just happened to match the metal pieces on my belt.
Remember to see all of Gloria’s beautiful sewing projects on her blog, Domestic-Divaonline.com!
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