How to Make a Silk Pleated Evening Bag

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This tutorial is for a delicious silk evening bag, as pictured. It has a balloon-shape that is created by inserting both pleats and darts. Silk works well because it responds in an effective manner to the sculpting of the darts and pleats. An original design by Lisa Lam (details below).
If you are an experienced sewer, this is a good project; it is not advised for those who are uncertain of their sewing skills.
In this project you will pick up/apply these skills:

a bit of pattern making - it's a pain, but important
inserting darts - great for adding 3D shape to bags
inserting pleats - great for adding 3D shape to bags
inserting a magnetic snap - easy and professional closures

NB: All seam allowances are 1 cm unless otherwise stated. You can click on any photo to enlarge it if needed.

Steps

Make up your pattern (part 1). Start with an A3 (42cm x 30cm) sized piece of paper, and fold it in half by bringing the short sides together. When making a symmetrical pattern, it's best to draw half of the pattern, fold the paper in half then cut it out. Take the crease line as the starting point, and draw the two blue coloured lines as in the photo.
Measure 22 cm up from the bottom of the paper and draw a right angle line from crease line to end of paper. Along the line you have just made, mark point at 17 cm. At the 17 cm mark, measure 95 degrees and mark the vertical line as seen in photo.
Make up your pattern (part 2). Draw the black coloured lines as shown in photo. Draw a free hand curve at the bottom right side of the paper. Draw a triangle (for the dart) at the fullest part of the curve (the triangle in this tutorial is 55 degrees, and the sides are 3.5cm long). Ensure that when you fold this dart triangle in half, there is paper hanging off. Check by physically bringing the straight sides of the triangle together. Measure 5 degrees from the top line and draw the line. Fold your pattern in half along the crease line and cut it out.
From this pattern, cut two pieces of silk. Continue to cut two pieces of lining; two pieces of iron-on interfacing; and two pieces of heavy sew-in.
Make up your pattern (part 3). Make up your pattern for the handle tabs as shown in the photo. From this pattern cut: 2 pieces of silk; 2 pieces of lining; 2 pieces of iron-on interfacing; and 2 pieces of heavy sew-in.
Make up the bag handle tabs. Iron the iron-on interfacing onto the wrong side of both of the silk pieces. Make a sandwich with the one of the the silk pieces (right side up) on the the bottom, a lining piece (right side down) in the middle, and a heavy sew-in piece on the top. Pin the sandwich and stitch together leaving a 10cm gap in one of the long edges. Make notches into the 'V' of the handle tab, and clip off the corners. This will reduce bulk and make for a smoother result when you turn the handle tab right side out. Turn the tab right side out through the gap and press. Repeat for the other bag handle tab.
Make notches into 'V' of the handle tab. Clip off the corners of the point as shown.
Check it looks like this.
Insert the magnetic snaps. Take one of the handle tabs and fold it in half (make sure the half or the tab which has the gap in the bottom of it is facing outwards (the exterior side (not the lining) of the bag - this will be sewn shut later.) On the tab half which will face the inside of the bag, find and mark the centre of the tab and push one of magnetic snap parts into the tab so as the make two prong marks/indentations. Using a stitch ripper, make two small cuts into the markings you have just made (don't cut through both halves of the tab, just one half). Take one of the magnetic snap parts and push the prongs through the right side of the tab. Slip a metal washer over the prongs at the back of the tab and then press the prongs down away from each other.
Repeat with the other tab and the other mag snap part in the same way.
Locate the centre. Magnetic snaps comprise of 4 parts; 2 washers, and a male and female. Find the centre of the tab, and make prong marks/an indentation by pushing a mag snap part into your fabric. Push the mag snap part into the right side of your tab and slip a washer on the back.
Sew darts into the bag pieces. Iron the iron-on interfacing onto the wrong side of both of the silk pieces (usually it would not be advised to use firm iron-on interfacing on silk but in this case we want the interfacing to make the silk more crunchy because we are after those 'sculptural qualities' for this bag). Take one of the silk exterior pieces (right side up), lay it on the heavy sew-in interlining piece, and treat as one layer. With the silk right side up fold the dart triangle in half and and stitch the dart (with 1 cm seam allowance) as shown in the photo.
- Repeat for the other 3 darts. Sew the 4 darts in the lining pieces in the same way.
- Fold dart triangles and sew dart as shown in image.
Sew exterior bag. Pin the 2 exterior halves (with wrong sides out) together. Whilst pinning together, ensure that the dart lines meet each other (so that the darts will run smoothly from the front of the bag to the back). Measure 7.5cm down from both top edge corners and mark. Starting from one of the markings sew around the sides and bottom of the exterior and stop at the other marking. Turn right side out.
- Sew lining bag bag in the same way. Except that you must leave a 15 cm gap in the bottom and do not turn the lining bag right side out.
- Measure and mark 7.5 cm down from the top edge on both sides. Sew by following the blue arrow.
Bring the exterior and lining bags together and stitch together. With the right side out, slip the exterior bag into the lining bag. The right sides of the lining and the exterior bag should now be touching each other. Make the 7.5 cm markings as in Step 5.
- Slip exterior bag into lining bag as shown.
- Measure and mark 7.5 cm down from the top edge on the left and right sides of the lining. Sew by following the blue arrow.
Pull the exterior bag through the hole in the lining. Pop the lining into the exterior bag and smooth everything out. Stitch the gap in the lining shut by tucking the raw edges into the hole and top stitching for a neat finish.
- Pull it through. Stitch a hole in the lining, and press.
- This should be the result (after a spot of ironing!)
Insert the pleats. Mark the centre top edge of the flap with a pin. Pleat the flap as shown in the picture. Hold the pleats in place with paper clips. Important - ensure that after pleating, the flap is the same length as the handle tab casing. This part will take a bit of fiddling and adjustment, so take your time and get it right at this stage. Hand sew a few stitches to keep the pleats in place. Repeat with the other flap.
- Look at the front view of pleats. Notice how the outer edges bend upwards? Don't worry about that, just make sure that when you place one of the handle tabs over your pleats (position the tab on the blue line which is 1cm down from the centre top edge) everything lines up nicely - in other words, the bag sides flow up into the handle tabs to create a smooth line. To get the width of the pleats right will take a bit of fiddling about (it would be good to have a cup of tea handy for this bit!). Secure pleats with some paper clips and then with a few hand stitches.
- This is how the pleats should look from the lining side.
Position the handle tab onto the purse flap. Take one of the handle tabs and fold it in half over the pleated purse flap and slip one of the handles onto the tab. Ensure that the mag snap is facing inwards! Because there a quite a few layers to sew through, and this stage is all about positioning the tab correctly over the pleats, we are not going to trust pins to hold everything in place. Instead we are going to glue the tabs onto the pleats and then sew - this will save you a lot of grief!
- Slip a handle onto the tab. Apply some fabric glue to the lining side of the handle tab and the top edge of the pleats. Wait for a minute or two and then bond pressing the edges firmly. Repeat for the lining side of the pleats. Be careful to line everything up as best as you can, ensuring that the bottom of the edges of the tab are even on both the lining side and the exterior side of the bag (in other words, one edge should not hang lower than the other). Make sure that you get a nice straight diagonal line from the sides of the bag through to the handle tabs.
Sew the handle tab onto the pleats. When the glue has dried sew the handle tab onto the pleats 2 or 3 mm from the edge. Ensure that you catch all of the layers as you sew (which, if you positioned everything correctly earlier, everything will be fine). This is where you will sew the gap in the bottom of the tab shut. Take your time! Repeat for the other handle tab.
Stitch the tab onto the pleats. Go slowly! It's a bit bulky and awkward but if you take you time you should get a nice straight/ish line. You will find out here that gluing it first just a brilliant idea!

Tips

Try not to be messy with the glue.

Things You'll Need

1/2 yard of heavy weight sew-in
1/2 yard of firm iron-on interfacing
1/2 yard of taffeta-like silk for exterior and matching thread
1/2 yard lining fabric and matching thread
1 x chocolate rectangular wood handles
1 x bronze 14mm magnetic snap

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

Original source of article, Lisa Lam, Silk Pleated & Darted Purse of Prettiness Tutorial. Shared with permission.

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make a Silk Pleated Evening Bag. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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Sep 3, 2008