Hoop together white cotton fabric, thin wadding and the medium weight tear away stabilizer

Insert your hoop into your machine

Now lay under the your hoop the Stitch N Shape (you cannot hoop this product as it is just too thick)

Press the button on your machine to do an automatic stitch around the inside of your hoop to hold everything together

Now start stitching each of the designs

Once you have finished stitching all the designs out it is time to cut each panel along the outside of each satin stitch border

Cutting away from the satin stitch border using scissors

Zigzag stitch each panel together using the same coloured thread as you used for the satin stitch border. This photo is showing you the zigzag stitch holding the panels together

The photo above shows you the layout of each design panel

Close up of showing you the layout of each design panel

Close up of showing you the layout of each design panel

Close up of showing you the layout of each design panel

Before I zigzagged the base panels to the rest of the panels I started by adding the black and white gingham petite piping to the top of the bag

Using a hot glue gun and gluing the black and white rickrack over the satin stitch that joins the main street panels to the top panels

Over the top of the rickrack I then hot glued the flowers

The photo showing you the flowers hot glued to the rickrack

The photo showing you the layout for the base panels after I had zigzagged the panels together

The photo showing you the type of haberdashery I used on the bag

The photo showing you the two side panels

Zigzag stitch the main street panels together with the base panels starting with one of the two side panels and ending like I have in the photo with the other side panel

Stitch the side panel to the last panel

I used the larger purse feet. You can purchase from the following URL http://www.pinkchalkfabrics.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3_690

Measure how far in you would like the feet for both ends of the bag

Insert the 2 large purse feet into the bag where you had marked

Measure the bag for the lining, I always make the lining slightly larger both width and length, you can always just pleat the extra bit of lining at a corner or where ever it best suites you

Iron the lining and fold over the top and stitch

Mark the centre on the front and back of the lining

Cut some of the left over Stitch N Shape larger than the magnetic snaps and pin to both sides of the lining where you marked the centre, making sure you do this on the wrong side of the lining

Measure the distance of the two spokes and mark

Using a sharp blade cut where you marked for each side

Hammer the two spokes down

Pin your lining to the bag matching up the centre of the bag with the lining then stitch the lining to the bag

On the outside of the bag I stitched the black and white gingham ruffle over the stitching that I had previously done for the lining. I then added a pretty dingle dangle at the corner as this covers up where I could not stitch on the machine. This was where I joined the front and side panels and the join was a little too thick for the machine.

I hot glued the flowers over the top of the stitching for the lining just to give the bag a nice finish

Using the centre mark on both the front and back of the bag mark as to the distance you would like to hammer your bag handles into your bag. I do like this type of bag handle as it is so easy to do and I just love easy at times 🙂

I do hope you enjoyed making the “Main Street” bag

After you have stitched out your designs you can then cut out the fabric, what I did was to double the fabric over before cutting out the following measurements for the bag but you can either make the bag larger or smaller, that I leave up to you

Measurements for the front and back pink fabric of the bag
Length 35cm or 13.7 inches
Width 37.5 cm or 14.7 inches

Measurements for the black and white poker dot fabric
Length 8cm or 3.1 inches
Width 37.5cm or 14.7 inches

Stitch the contrasting fabric of your choice to the pink fabric

Stitch both the front and back together on all three sides

To make box corners

Flatten the bottom corner to make your bag bottom flat, hold one of the bottom corner of the exterior and match the side seam line with the bottom seam line (have a good look into your bag to see if the side seam and the bottom seams meet and flow into one another) Completely flatten the bag corner to form a triangle and pin.

Measure and mark your chosen flat bottom depth…I would for example, if you want your bag bottom to be 5 cm (1.9 inches) in depth. To make your bag bottom 5cm (1.9 inches) deep all you have to do is measure and mark a line that is 90 degrees to the side seam and is 5 cm (1.9 inches) long across the width of the triangle

You can make a mock up to see how you flat bottom will look on your bag, experiment with a piece of paper

Stitch flat bottom along the bottom line mark you made. Be sure to sew securing stitches at both ends to finish, trim off any excess fabric from the triangle, please not too close to the seam

Showing you the base of the Bag

Close up of the base

You can purchase similar handles on the following website:
http://www.studiomio.com.au/categories/-Bag-Handles/Plastic-Handles/?page=1&sort=featured

Using the contrasting fabric for the handles

Length of fabric cut out four 18cm or 7.8 inches

Width 11 cm or 4.3 inches

Fold over on both sides the length of fabric and press down with an iron and stitch the two sides together

Fold the fabric over the handle and stitch down at the end of the fabric

To have a nice even seam at the top of the bag I stitched along the top about 5/8 inches

I used the iron to press down where I had previously stitched

Measure the centre of the front and back of the bag and mark

Measure the centre of the loop you had made for the handle

Join the two centres and pin

Fold over where you had stitched once again using your iron to press the seam down

Fold over where you had stitched once again using your iron to press the seam down

Make the lining for the bag

Hand sew the lining to the bag

Then using your sewing machine sew around the top and then take out all your hand stitching

I added the roses just to give the bag an added finish, I hot glued the roses onto the front of the bag