tutorial AND a giveaway!

Please Read: 
Thank you to SewCanShe.com for featuring my tutorial! Please note that this post is from almost a year ago and the giveaway is long over.  I've had a lot of comments to enter the giveaway, so i'm sorry if I've confused anyone!  But, please enjoy my tutorial!! :) 

**Also, it appears some of these photos are suddenly missing. I did not personally delete them from my Flickr photostream, but they are nevertheless gone and I did not keep them on my Macbook. Frustrating. One day soon I may whip up another of these to fill in the gaps, but until then, I'd be happy to help via email if something doesn't make sense without those last few photos.

For Natalie's 5th birthday, I made her some clothes for her Groovy Girl doll and a little purse to put them in. She has used this little quilted purse ever since for all her sweet little treasures and a few months ago, a sweet reader emailed me asking if I had plans to post some instructions for that purse. SO, finally, I made one up, took pictures and without further ado, here is your tutorial! Oh, and if you don't want to make this little purse, but you'd like to win one, scroll to the bottom of this post :)

I have tried to make this somewhat beginner friendly; sorry if its TMI for some of you!

Little Girl's Quilted Purse Tutorial 

You will need:

13"x20" piece of your main fabric

11"x18" piece of your lining fabric

a rectangle of cotton batting, an inch or so larger on all sides than your main fabric piece

two 2.25"x18" strips for the handles

a 13" piece of elastic (1/4 or 3/8 wide)

Here are my cut pieces:

First, we will do the quilting on the main panel. Place your main fabric right side up on top of your cotton batting.  You do not need a backing fabric to quilt it if you're using cotton batting, but I don't know if this is the case for polyester batting--it may get caught up in your feed dogs. 

Put a few quilting pins in it to keep it all together and mark your lines. On Natalie's heart purse, I quilted around the bigger hearts, but on this one, I'm going to quilt diagonal lines, 1.5" apart. Here is my marked piece:

Go ahead and quilt your lines, using a walking foot.

After it's all quilted, you can trim it down to  11"x18", to match the size of your lining piece.

Next, fold your quilted piece in half, hot-dog style (short end to short end). Pin the sides and sew them in a 1/4" seam.

So, you should have a folded bottom, sewn sides, and an open top. Turn it right-side out and set it aside for a minute. 

Take your handle pieces and fold them in half length-wise, right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam, leaving the short ends open. 

Turn those handles right side out. (I use a Fasturn, but you can also attach a safety pin to one side, then work it through the tube to the other side).  Press them flat and topstitch both sides like so:

Pin your handles to either side of your purse, 2.5" from the side seams on each side:

Baste them on there, just inside your seam allowance. Now you should have this:

Okie, dokie, set that aside and grab your lining fabric. 

Fold your lining in half just like you did your main panel and make marks on one side, one at 3/4" down from the top and another at 1 1/4" down from the top. Also mark a 3" opening toward the bottom of that same side. So, you'll be sewing the side seam, leaving a 1/2" opening near the top and a 3" opening near the bottom. See where my pins are? I'll leave open between those pins:

Sew the other side all the way up. 

Next, slip your lining over your quilted purse. The pieces should be right sides together:

Match up the top edges, lining up the side seams and sew all the way around in a 1/4" seam. 

Now you can pull your purse right side out through the 3" opening you left in the lining. Sew up the hole in your lining (by hand or machine), the tuck the lining inside the purse and press that top edge flat. 

We are going to make three rows of top stitching. One will be close to the top edge. The next will be 1/2" down from the top and the third will be 1" down from the top. These second and third rows should be on either side of the small gap you left in your side lining seam. It should look like this:

If your gap is a little off from those measurements, that's okay, just adjust the top stitching so your opening is inside the lines. 

Finally, to make the ruffle, attach a safety pin to one end of your elastic and work it through the casing you created with the topstitching, through the opening in your lining. 

Lap the ends and stitch it good.

Done! 

I sure love that little stripe poking out of the top!

If any of this does not make sense, or if I have confused you, please, please, please let me know so I can fix it!!

Now, I thought I was going to make this for Layla, but I remembered too late that I have a cupcake fabric that I think she would like better. Sooooo, I am going to give this one away to one of you!!!!

To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment on this post! There ya go. Tell your friends :) I'll leave this open for a few days so everyone gets a chance to enter.