Bag #43: Sew-in Frame Bag

I bought this 8”/20 cm frame with a view to making a vintage style bag.  Later on I changed my mind and decided to make an evening bag.  I found a lovely patterned velour which gave the bag softness and texture. 

There are lots of different frames out there, so you need to be able to make a pattern for your size of frame.  The technique is quite simple and I have explained it below.

The amount of fabric required is a 10” or 25 cm strip of each fabric if you are making an 8”/20 cm frame bag like mine.  See my comments at the end about choosing your lining. I used a quilt wadding to pad the bag and attached a firm iron-on interfacing to the lining to give it more body.  I chose not to add any pockets inside.  Having quite thick seams makes the fabric stay in the frame more easily – I think cotton would have rattled around in this large frame – I would have had to add some cord inside the seam to fatten it up.

The finished size is 8½”/21.5 cm high (excluding the carrying handle), 13”/33 cm wide at the base and 2¼”/5.5 cm deep at the base.  This frame had attachments for a chain handle but I didn’t have one.  I might add one later on.

Skill level: Intermediate – the sewing is quite straightforward but you need to make your own pattern for the purse frame.  Some experience of sewing is useful because it will help you to work out the shape you want.

I used a stitch length of 3 throughout as the fabric was bulkier than my usual cotton.  I used ¼”/6mm seams for the outer bag and slighter wider seams for the lining.

I have included metric and imperial measurements but they are not exactly interchangeable, so you should stick to either one or the other.

Skills used in this project:

• Using a sew-in bag frame

Step 1: Making the pattern

On a large piece of paper, draw round the top of the purse frame, marking the centre.

Pivot one of the top corners so that the hinge swings out by about 1”/2.5 cm.  Draw a line from the top of the purse frame to the hinge.  Make a mark ⅜”/1 cm further along the same diagonal line.  This will be your hinge mark. Fold the paper in half and copy the hinge mark onto the other side of the paper.  You know your bag will be symmetrical now.

You have now designed the top of your bag. The bottom is up to you.  I wanted my bag to be quite large (I made my pattern 10”/25 cm tall) and to have a wider base (mine was 15¼”/ 39 cm at its widest point).  But you could curve the bottom and put in a dart to give it a rounded shape.  Or make it much shorter and more purse-like.

Working just on one side of the bag, I originally drew the side diagonal line right down to the horizontal base line.  To create the flat bottom, I measured 2”/5 cm along the bottom and side line, folded them so that they met and drew a line from one mark to the other.  This created the corner cut outs.

Step 2: Cutting out

For an 8”/20 cm frame like mine, cut out the following:

10“ x 15¼ “ /25 cm x 39 cm Bag sides (cut 2 outer fabric, 2 wadding, 2 lining, 2 interfacing), shaped according to your pattern, above.

Step 3: Assembling the outer bag and lining

Mark the hinge position on the fabrics.

Attach the wadding to the wrong side of each of the outer fabrics, by pinning, ironing or gluing, as appropriate.

Place the outer fabric pieces right sides together and sew the side and bottom seams, starting at one hinge mark and finishing at the other hinge mark. Do not sew the corner cut outs yet.

This is what the corners should look like
when sewn (shown here in the lining)

Next, starting with one corner, flatten the fabrics so to corner becomes a straight line, match the seams and sew across. 

Do the same for the other corner.

Attach the interfacing to the wrong side of each of the lining.

With right sides together sew around the sides and bottom from one hinge mark to the other.

Then sew the corners as above.

Step 4: Attaching lining to outer bag

Turn one of the bag pieces right side out (it doesn’t matter whether it is the outer or the lining) and put it inside the other one.

To sew the top seams, pin the lining bag to the outer bag, right sides together.  Sew the lining to the outer bag along the top seam, as shown in the photo.

On one side of the bag, leave a gap of 4”/10 cm for turning.

Turn through and sew up the gap (it won’t be seen, so it doesn’t have to be neat).  If using a fabric that irons well, this step isn't really necessary as you can just press the edges under and they will stay that way when you sew in the bag frame - this black fabric was quite slippery and I wanted to be sure that both lining and outer fabric were attached to the frame.

Step 5: Sewing on the frame

With the outer fabric now facing outwards, push the top seam firmly into the frame and clip to hold it in place.

If the stitches will be visible on the inside, consider using an invisible thread (I wish I had!).

Starting at the centre, sew along one side of the frame to the end using a running stitch and fill in the alternate stitches when sewing back towards the centre.

Sew the other half of this side of the frame in the same way.

Do the same for the other side of the frame.

Your bag is now finished.  Time to get dressed up and go somewhere fancy to show off your new bag.  Make sure it’s not anywhere to dark or other people won’t be able to see it!

In this project I learnt:

• When choosing a lining fabric, it is worth thinking about the type of frame you have and what colour thread you will use to sew on the frame. I have made sew-in frame purses before and I was able to make my stitches almost invisible.  I hadn’t realised that this frame made that impossible.  I used heave duty black thread but it really stood out and it looked so untidy on the inside.  I should have used an invisible thread or a black lining fabric so that the stitches didn’t look so gruesome. 

• This was a cheap frame.  The fixings on the inside for the chain made it really hard to get a needle through some of the holes and it is one of the few times I have snapped a needle.  Perhaps a more expensive frame would be better designed.

• I enjoy hand sewing but this frame took ages to sew and I got really bored before the end.  I would happily use a sew-in frame for a small bag or purse, but for a larger one, in future I shall definitely stick to glue-in frames.