Straw Placemat Purse Tutorial
Materials: 1 oval straw placemat with cute embroidered flowers already on it fabric for lining and gusset 2 nylon webbing straps (length is up to you, I use about 26 inch straps so it fits over my shoulder) zipper for top, at least 14 inches but can be longer zipper for optional inside pocket- 7 or 9 inch 1. cut out your pieces of fabric. First cut the lining. Lay placemat down on fabric and cut an oval of fabric about half an inch larger than the placemat, all the way around 2. cutting the gusset pieces to determine finished gusset length, fold the placemat in half and measure the length of the curved edge. (basically this is half the circumfrence of the placemat.) my placemat needs a 26 inch gusset. The gusset sort of looks like a big Q-tip. The "stick" part of the Q-tip is straight and has the zipper in it, and the "cotton balls" on both ends are wider and rounded. Since I am using a 14 inch zipper, , the stick will be 14 inches long. Subtract the zipper length from the total finished length to determine how long your end pieces will be total length of gusset- zipper length= length of both end pieces 26-14=12 so my end pieces will be 6 inches long in the finished gusset 14+6+6=26 add an inch of seam allowance to each piece so my cut pieces are the "stick"- 2 pieces 15" x 3" the "cotton balls"- cut 4 pieces 7" x 4.5", and cut into rounded shape on one end this is how the pieces will fit together 3. attaching the lining to the placemat I added an optional zipper pocket to the lining and a patch pocket. Add any pockets before you attach the lining to the placemat. Make sure the pockets do not get within one half an inch of the cut edge, because tis is your hem allowance. Fold under the edges of the lining half an inch all the way around, and press with an iron. Put the lining on the placemat, wrong sides together. Sew lining to placemat all the way around the edge. 4. adding the straps. If you are using nylon webbing straps, melt the ends with a flame to prevent unraveling. You sew the straps on while the placemat is still flat. First sew one side like this, sew edges of straps to lining side Then fold placemat in half and mark the strap placement on the other side so that straps match up. Matching the straps is an important step because it looks bad if they don't match up. Sew the straps on the other side. 5.Fold placemat in half again and mark the center line on both sides with pins now set the placemat aside and work on the gusset. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ making the zipper for the gusset I am using a zipper technique like you'd use for the back of a dress. This has flaps of fabric that cover the zipper, but you can use other zipper methods that expose the teeth if you prefer them. 6.place your two "stick" pieces (15"x3") right sides together 7. set your stitch length to a long basting stitch, and sew the 2 pieces together the long way, right down the center of the pieces. 8. fold open the seam and press, as you can see I made no effort to match the pattern, LOL. Oh well! 9. place the zipper face down on the seam with the teeth right above the seam. pin and sew both sides of zipper to fabric, going through both layers. (your stitch length should be back to a shorter normal stitch now) 10. use your seam ripper to rip out your basting seam from step 7. Now the flaps are open and can allow the zipper to open and close. This is what it looks like, I have the flaps sort of spread open here so you can see the zipper but normally they hide the zipper 11. sew one of the 4 end pieces to one end of the "stick". Right sides together 12. flip the "stick" over and sew another of the end pieces to that same end. You are sandwiching the "stick" between 2 end pieces. 13. fold open the seams and press with an iron. Grade the seam allowances if the seam is too bulky. You now have one half of the "Q-tip" done. It will look like this, and that curved end piece is 2 layers 14. repeat steps 11-13 with the other end of the "stick" and the other 2 end pieces. Your "Q-tip gusset" is finished. I like to overlock the edges all the way around, you can zigzag the edges too. It just makes the inside a little cleaner and holds the double layers together. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ attaching gusset to placemat I have not found a way to do this entire job with the machine. The straw is not flexible enough to turn the purse inside out, and one it's folded in half and sewn partially together, I can't get the machine into all the corners. If anyone works out a betetr method for attaching the gusset, please let me know! What I do is sew as much as I can by machine and then finish up the tricky parts by hand. 15. mark the center of each of the ends of the gusset with a pin. These will match up with your pins on the placemat from step 5. 16. pin and sew one long edge of the gusset to the placemat edge by machine, with the right side of the gusset seam allowance facing the lining. The seam will be inside the purse and try to stitch close to the edge of the placemat inside view outside view 17. Now open the zipper in the gusset. This will allow you to sew part of the other side of the gusset by machine, if you have a free-arm machine. The smaller your free-arm, the more you can do by machine. You should be able to sew the other side of the "stick" part to the placemat by machine, make sure the straps match up before you sew! 18. This is as much as I can do with the machine as you can hopefully see, one side is all the way done and the other side is done between the straps but there is unsewn area on the curved part of the gusset. other side 19. Sew up that last bit on each side by hand, you will be sewing from the outside because it's inpossible to turn the purse inside out. You don't have to sew through the straw part for the hand sewing, just sew the gusset fabric to the lining fabric. Try to make your stitches small and neat since this does show a little bit. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ there is a finished one below with a different zipper method (exposed teeth) before- $1.20 straw placemat with cute embroidered flowers: materials: placemat lining and fabric gusset- old paisley cotton from my stash nylon webbing straps 1 zipper for top after: showing top and side with fabric gusset and zipper insides this placemat was rather stiff so I decided to add the fabric gusset at the sides so it wouldn't be folded too sharply in half. It also gives more room inside than if I just folded it flat.
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