Happy Monday Fellow Bag lovers and Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian Friends! Today we are kicking off the Butterfly Sling Bag Sew Along. Hopefully, by now you have gathered all your fabric and supplies and are ready to do all your cutting and prepping today. If not, no worries! You can follow along at your own pace, these posts will stay up so no pressure to get everything done on the same schedule.
Before we get started make sure you have gathered all your supplies and are ready to getting cutting. If you are anything like me, the task of picking the right fabrics often takes just as long as sewing up my projects. If you are joining us make sure you gather your pattern and hardware:
-The Butterfly Sling Purse Pattern by Emmaline Bags. Get your copy here.
-The Butterfly Sling Purse Hardware kit (If you haven't purchased the kit, the hardware you will need to complete this bag is listed in the pattern and can all be purchases separately)
**Act quickly if you want to take advantage of the sale and save 20% on your purchase of the pattern and/or the hardware kit. **
Ready?! Let's get the dreaded (at least for me) prep work out of the way. For this bag there is only ONE pattern piece to print, which is for the closure strap end if you wish it to have it rounded. Other wise we are just cutting from measurements, so that's a time saver when it comes to prepping! Once you have all your supplies, you can refer to the cutting instructions. For those of you who like to strictly follow directions, or are cutting directional prints, Janelle gives a clear layout for cutting your pieces, For those who are feeling a little more rogue, or are noty using a directional print: cut the pieces in whatever layout you find works best. Just remember to measure twice and cut once!
Now that you have all your fabric and interfacing cut, lets get fusing! Please refer to the maufacturer's instructions on how best to fuse your interfacing to your fabric. I've found that the woven Pellon Shapeflex called for in the pattern is typically pretty easy to fuse and really doesn't matter whether I iron it from the interfacing or fabric side, but do whatever you think is best . As far as the fusible fleece, I find that ironing in from the fabric side with a spritz or two of water works best for me.
For this Butterfly Sling, I did substitute a foam stabilizer, but this is because I had it handy and I like the structure that foam gives. Sometimes the foam can make doing a zippered pocket a pain, so if you choose to use foam, I would suggest cutting a 1 "inch rectangle out of your foam where the zipper will sit on your interior pocket before basting/fusing your foam to your panel. If you forget, it's no biggie but it does make it a little more challenging to make your zip pocket sit as nicely, but just press the heck out of it!
Now that all your fabric is cut and prepped for sewing, we can call it a day and jump into the real fun tomorrow! Another plus of prepping your fabric a day before we start sewing is that the interfacing will have time to cool and will be better adhered to the fabric before we start sewing (I learned this tip from Margareth of Maggie Made Bags, it really has made a difference).
Feel free to follow this sew along at your pace! No need to feel like you HAVE to start and stop with us. I'd love it if you share your progress on Instagram or Facebook. Use the hashtag #butterflyslingsewalong so we can all see your progress and if you haven't already join the Emmaline Sewing Patterns Group on Facebook. Come back and join us tomorrow as we start constructing the exterior pieces. Happy Sewing!
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