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You can find a discount code for frames from Emmaline Bags in my latest blog post.

Time for a fun round-up! I thought I’d share some patterns for framed purses, since there’s such a range and I find they turn out looking like you put more effort into them than you really did. I won’t tell if you don’t! There are several different types of frames, so I’ve broken up the post by type of frame.

Psst! Keep reading for discount details.

These purses and clutches remind me of dress-up as a little girl, with my “click-clack” shoes, long gloves, and mom’s old dresses. I still get a kick out of opening and closing them. 

This pattern from U-Handbag is true to its name. I found the sewing to be lemon squeezy, but I was a little nervous when it came time to glue the fabric into the frame. Thankfully I didn’t mess up and get glue all over, and it turned out beautifully! You can also find this pattern as part of the online Craftsy class Sewing Structured Bags with Lisa Lam.

Inside is simple, and the purse opens up quite wide.

You can also find an adorable mini frame with chain that works to hold a few coins or as a lipstick holder at Emmaline Bags; there are even pattern pieces to download for free to make 2 different minis. 

If you have the Sizzix die cutting machine, this Sew Sweetness coin purse will be a breeze with her coin purse die. You can also find the frames in 2 different sizes and 2 different finishes on the Sew Sweetness site.

These frames open up wide and snap shut with irresistible fun- really, once you install them in a bag, I dare you. You won’t be able to resist opening and closing the bag just for the sake of opening and closing the bag! This style of frame really helps give the shape of carpet bags or doctor bags. You can see how to install them in myvideo found here.

The Companion Carpet Bag from Sewing Patterns by Mrs. H is the first framed bag I made and I really fell in love with it. This bag will make you look like a genius! Once you pop that frame on, the wow factor is unavoidable.

This Craftsy Class features video lessons and downloadable resources, including the patterns for the Easy Purse (as mentioned above) and the Carpet Bag pattern by Lisa Lam.

Internal Wire Frames are inexpensive and relatively easy to incorporate. You can find them Emmaline Bags, and they come in 3 different styles: A, B & C.

This pattern from Little Moo Designs uses the Style A Internal Wire Frames from Emmaline. The Race Day Bag is insulated and tall enough to hold a bottle of wine! 

This FREE pattern from Emmaline Bags comes in 2 sizes and uses either Style A  for small or Style B for large. Download the pattern here.

This is one of my favourite patterns ever! I’ve made more of this pattern than most others. I love to use it as a lunch bag by insulating it and using a wipeable material for the lining. The pattern calls for the Style B internal wire frames and the bag opens up really wide so there’s plenty of room for your lunch in containers. Get the pattern here.

Here’s another free pattern for you! This pattern from Mrs. H uses the style C internal wire frames from Emmaline Bags. The large rounded top gives the bag a luxurious shape and is perfect for tall brushes and toiletries. It’s larger than it looks, and could even work as an evening clutch. Check it out here.

This large bag works as a day trip bag or even as an overnight bag. You’ll need the style C frames for this one. I hosted a sew along this summer so if you need some extra help check it out here.  To get the pattern, click here.

These ones don’t have frames but look like they do!

This bag, like a traditional doctor bag is structured and opens up nice and wide, but doesn’t require a frame. Instead, the pattern calls for boning at the top, in place of a more expensive frame. See the pattern here.

Now that you’ve learned about the different types of frames, get started on your own framed bag! Emmaline Bags is offering a 15% discount on any of their frames found at this link. Use code OKAPIFRAME15 at checkout. No minimum order required, offer expires October 31, 2017.

What’s better than free fabric? Well, not much, that’s for sure! Except maybe time to sew it up, but since I don’t possess magic time controlling powers, a fabric giveaway will have to do. I have a beautiful bundle of Jackie McFee‘s new fabric collection, My Gray or the Highway, to give away. Jackie always has such fun names for her collections! I got to work with these fabrics before they were released so I’ll share my projects before I get to the giveaway details.

I’ve worked with several of Jackie’s collections before so when she contacted me to work on some projects for last year’s Quilt Market, I was really looking forward to what she had come up with this time.

She said she was hoping to make her booth at Quilt Market into a college dorm room. I think she really nailed it! 

Of course every college dorm room needs a quilt made with love, so I suggested my friend Crystal of Cloth Albatross make one and, as usual, Crystal knocked it out of the park. I’m always delighted by her creations.

A girl needs a stylish bag to carry her books in, so Courtney of Skull and Thread made this amazing backpack.  

Jackie said she wanted to have a travel bag and some desk accessories, so I suggested the Swoon Dallas Duffel for the travel bag. I also thought the Radiant Home Studio North Pond Book Cover and the Tablet Case from Anna Graham’s (Noodlehead) book Handmade Style: 23 Must-Have Basics to Stitch, Use, and Wear, would be great to add to the student feel.

Here’s where Jackie really wowed me. For the patterns I suggested, she made up the concept image with the fabrics in place. Sooo cool! 

I think the actual sewn up version came pretty close to Jackie’s idea. We changed up the “dk Gray Felt” for cotton webbing to be more sturdy, and I added a Strap End from Emmaline  for an extra elegant touch.

The inside is fun too!

Here’s what she envisioned for the travel bag:

I did add a vinyl overlay to the bottom, but it doesn’t come quite as high as the concept, and we changed the straps to be cotton webbing to match the notebook cover. For the exterior zippered pocket, I used the double welt technique I learned from Swoon Bonnie Bucket Bag to add the mint colour. 

Pretty cool hey? Even the fabric placement is almost the same!

The tablet case was lots of fun and used some the lighter prints in the collection. This one is a pretty quick sew and comes together similarly to the pencil case in the book.

I’m not sure which is the front or the back since they each have pockets! The lining is the same colourful print from the small pocket (this print might be my favourite from the collection).

I loved seeing it all come together and Jackie’s booth turned out so well!

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…enter to win through the rafflecopter below!

Good luck, and be sure to share with your friends for extra karma!

This story starts out kinda funny. I had been following Lysa Flower on Instagram for a while, and realized she must live close to me after she posted some pictures to local events. I can’t remember how it came out for sure, but after a couple messages back and forth, we discovered we actually live in the same town! How cool is that?! Lysa is as cool in real life as you imagine she might be from her Instagram feed. Lysa was going to the Spring Quilt Market and had some projects on the go and when she asked me to make this bag with her Cassette pattern and Kimberly Kight’s Snap to Grid fabric, I simply couldn’t turn it down. 

I was a little nervous to dive right in since I didn’t have a ton of paper piecing experience. I made this practice one using Libs Elliott’s Tattooed collection and omitted the piping. I also only put the cassette on one side since this was just practice and time was ticking. You may have noticed I did in fact make some mistakes on this one: my seam allowance was a little too small in the top left and you can see my stitching, and I didn’t use a separate colour for the center of the “cassette.” Phew! I was glad to learn those mistakes on my practice! I also tried to place tabs for the strap at the seam for the zipper panel, but that made it very difficult to do the drop in lining at the end, not impossible, just verrrry difficult. 

The Snap to Grid collection is so much fun! If it reminds you of the 80’s, that’s because it’s meant to! It’ll have you wearing side ponies and stirrup pants (or at least reminiscing about them). Lysa wanted the whole bag to be like a 3D cassette tape, not just on the front, so we adapted both the Sew Sweetness Polaris bag and Lysa’s Cassette Tape pattern to make it happen. 

​Cotton + Steel has such fun selvages and I was so glad this project has the perfect place for them.

For the Exterior Bottom Panel, I used the Large cassette bottom pattern piece and extended the lines to match the width of the bag pattern. Then I added matching fabric to make up the rest of the panel.

Once I completed all the paper piecing, assembling the bag was identical to the instructions in the pattern.

The inside of this bag is just as cheerful as the outside, isn’t it? 

You can read about the rest of Lysa’s Market projects and collaboration with Kimberly Kight over on her site, and sign up for her newsletter while you’re there!

The Sew Along is all finished now but fear not! You can catch up and refer back to all the posts below:

Day 1: Getting started – cutting and fusing pieces
Day 2: Starting Exterior of bag 
Day 3: Finish Exterior of bag
​Day 4: Make the Lining 
Day 5: Finish the bag! 

Thanks so much to everyone who joined me and to Emmaline Bags for offering up prizes and a discount. 

Here are some entries from readers who completed their Castell during the Sew Along:

​Dot used a mix of neutrals to create a gorgeous elegant beauty.

Roxanne’s contrast stitching and snappy edge clasp balance out the browns in this bag perfectly.

I love the detail Tara added to the pocket flap, and the contrast in the casing and zipper!

Dot, Roxanne and Tara each won an Emmaline Bags credit: have fun shopping for bling ladies! You can search #CastellDayBag on Instagram for more inspiration.

I hope you enjoyed this set of Sew Along posts. Let me know in comments or email what you’d like to see more of on this blog. Stay tuned for a fun round-up.

I guess it’s a tradition now! Since my oldest son got a backpack when he went to school, my other son was expecting one when he started Kindergarten. Thanks to gradual entry, I managed to get an extra week to finish this one up. He’s much smaller and won’t really be bringing much home each day, so I decided to go with the Sew Sweetness Cumberland Backpack (small size). The patterns comes with many purchase options, including a bundle of PDF pattern and video. The video is an online workshop where Sara of Sew Sweetness goes through each step with you. Here’s a trailer of the video for the Cumberland Backpack.

I loved that this bag started taking shape right away; sometimes bags can take so long to make and you can’t really see progress along the way, but the front zippered compartment is pretty early on. This looks tricky since it’s a zipper along a curve, but it actually went pretty smoothly, especially with the wider zippers I use (and called for in the pattern.) I chose a simple magnetic snap, but the pattern includes instructions and measurements for a twist lock as well.

I used two different prints from Libs Elliott’s Tattooed Collection. The silver in the lightning bolts of the main print matches perfectly with the vinyl I used for some of the accents. I also used grey zippers and matching webbing to tie it all together. 

I’ve come to really appreciate the binding finish! This pattern actually comes with two finishing options. If you really don’t like doing the binding, you can follow a separate set of instructions, which are clearly marked for the alternative method. I like that the binding finish offers a relatively quick and simple way to complete the bag and even adds a bit of structure for the shape. You don’t need your binding stitching to be perfect because it’s hardly going to be seen, squished into the seams inside the bag. 

I can see making this as a cute backpack purse for myself, and I love that simple changes can give it a completely different look. If you haven’t already, you should check out thetester photos on the Sew Sweetness site for some examples. 

Now they each have their own, and I’m off the hook again, until next year! The small Cumberland is the perfect size for my little Kindergartener! If you missed it, you can read about the Adventure Time Backpack (pictured below left) here.  If you want to give the Cumberland Backpack a try, you can purchase the pattern here. 

Every year I tell myself that I’ll prepare better next year, but when the time comes, I haven’t and I’m left scrambling with my back-to-school sewing. Oh well, that’s the way it goes I guess. It just adds to the excitement of sewing: racing against time. Two years ago I made my son a backpack (you can read all about it here) and he really loved it, and it lasted amazingly. It was only starting to wear at the hanging loop. I could fix the loop, but I think it’s time for a new bag anyway. For my youngest, I’m making the Sew Sweetness Cumberland Backpack, but I wanted a more traditional style backpack for my oldest.  After nearly giving up, I found the Andrie Designs Adventure Time Backpack. 

I like that it comes in 2 sizes (I made the large) and that it has options for side pockets, plus the front zippered pocket. There are also options for an organizer-type interior pocket and additional zippered pocket at the front, but I omitted both those features. I also skipped the piping to keep the project a bit quicker. 

I kept the interior zippered pocket and added a strap to stabilize the load inside. According to the Canadian Chiropractic Association, the heavier items should be closer to the body, so the idea is that the strap inside can hold the heavier books toward the back and lighter items, like a lunchbag in front. The strap was really easy: I just sewed a piece of velcro into each side seam of the back panel. So he can adjust it to be narrow or wide depending on what he’s carrying that day.

Water bootle pockets are a must! In the winter, he likes to use these side pockets for his gloves too. I used the polyester mesh from Paccana; it’s really affordable, and durable too.

Even though the last one held up really well, I wanted to make this one a bit more durable, so I used Cordura (also from Paccana) for the base and back panel of the bag. This will also help keep the insides dry if he sets his bag down outisde.

I found this fabric at my local fabric store, Overseas Fabrics, actually my son picked it out. I rarely take him to the fabric store with me, since I’m usually asking my kids to stop touching everything, because it’s so darn tempting to touch it all, even for me. I was pleasantly suprised though, when the owners welcomed my kids and invited them to touch the fabric and enjoy their time in the store. Since we were at ease, it was no trouble finding the perfect fabric. He told me he wanted space or galaxy fabric, so when we saw this one, it was perfect. They have a huge selection of solids and we easily matched one of the colours from the print. I happened to have zippers that matched perfectly, and the velcro was such a fluke!

If you’ve been following my blog for some time, you’re probably aware that I avoid hand sewing at all costs…but these wooden tags from Brickbubble are adorable and I couldn’t resist putting one on this bag. Confession: I didn’t sew it by hand! I practiced a wide zigzag stitch with my machine on a scrap to find the right width and then once I figured it out, just used the zigzag on each side.  Reece: 1 | Hand sewing: 0 

Of course none of this matters unless he likes the final product, so I’m happy to report, he is one happy customer! 

Did you have any back to school scrambles? Let me know what you were up to for back to school sewing. 

If you’re looking for more back-to-school ideas, check out this round-up post from last year.