Sugar & Spice sew along - Let's go! (Week 1)

Finally, it's time to start making our Sugar & Spice purse!

First steps for this week - choose your fabric and make sure you have the supplies.  It was a tough decision for me, but I finally settled on some pretty fabric I picked up at the local quilt shop.

(Dark grey will be the outside, white for inside, yellow for pocket lining and possible piping, if I get busy and make it)

You should have a zipper, oval (or rectangle) strap connectors, thread, interfacing, and of course your fabric.  If you are doing anything extra, make sure you have extra fabric and supplies.  The rivets to hold the straps are a nice touch, and not that difficult if you want to try them!  There are tons of tutorials on the Internet for installing them, and I'll post a few more pictures when we get to that step in case anyone is interested.

Some possible extras: 

-- extra inside slip pocket (cut 4 of the inside pockets from the measurement and the second set will just be a repeat of the first set)

-- zippered inside pocket - you will need an extra zipper (9" should be long enough, you can cut it down if you have a longer one) and fabric for the lining of the pocket.

(This style of pocket is much easier than I ever thought it would be, it's my new favorite way to install zippers!)

-- cross-body strap -- This is one I'm going to see if I can figure out, but an extra half yard of fabric will be more than enough.  With the single strap, you may choose to make the existing handles shorter (more like a handbag length than the shoulder strap length they are now) or leave them off entirely, but I would still do the bottom part of the strap connector because it is used to attach the pockets on the front and back.

-- embroidery -- if you are going to embroider the pockets, I'd suggest doing it before cutting the pieces.

-- whatever else you can think of -- we'd love to see the modifications you are doing in the facebook group!

Starting today - Cut out all the fabric pieces  -- watch out for ones cut on the fold and if your fabric is directional.  Nothing worse than getting it all cut out and realizing you have upside down birds or sideways patterns!

By the end of this week, you should have all the fabric and interfacing pieces cut and fused together.  If you can't start until the weekend, don't panic, you'll have plenty of time to catch up!

Don't forget to check out the others that will be blogging as we go!

Gina's Craft Corner

Judith Stitches and More

Shades of Bold