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Wristlet

Tamara asked me to do a tutorial on how to make the little wristlet. So here it is. A warning though, this is how I made the bag. There may be a “proper” way to do it, or a better way, but this is the way I did it.

Materials needed:
2 separate scraps of fabric, approximately 12″x9″
2 pieces of fusible interfacing, the same size as your fabric
1 small piece of fabric to use as the inside pocket
1 small piece of fusible interfacing, the same size as your pocket fabric
1 strip of fabric, length to your liking, for the strap
thread in coordinating color
7″ zipper in coordinating color
pins
tailor’s chalk or pen

1. Iron on your interfacing to the wrong side of your fabric. If you’ve never used fusible interfacing before, there is a “bumpy” side and a “smooth” side. Place the bumpy side to the wrong side of your fabric and iron. This attaches the interfacing to your fabric. Do this for both pieces of your fabric, and your pocket fabric.

2. To get the correct size for your pocket, trace a credit card or something similar (I used a library card) on the wrong side of your fabric with chalk or pen. Here you can see the pink outlines:

Trim the fabric so that there is about a 1/4 inch around your lines.

3. To have a nice smooth edge at the top of your pocket, you’re going to want to sew it down. Fold along the line, and pin it like so:

Sew along the folded edge. After you’re done, it should look like this:

4. Using the piece of fabric that will be your inside fabric, pin the pocket to the spot where you’d like the pocket:

Again, sew it in place, staying close to the edges. It will look like this when done:

5. Place the wrong sides of your 2 fabrics together.

Mark the spot where you want your side seams to be. Don’t worry if there is excess fabric….you’re going to cut it off. Sew along the 2 lines, and it will look like this:

6. Cut the fabric about 1/4 of an inch (or less…depends on your comfort level on cutting, and how much of the seam you can stand seeing in the bag) from your seams:

Now your bag is 1/2 done! You should have something that looks like this:

7. Installing the zipper is a bit tricky, but if you take your time, you’ll have it installed in no time. Open up the zipper, and place one side of it, front of the zipper facing the inside of the bag (back of the zipper towards you), and with the top of the bag folded down, pin it into place.

This is what it should look like on the right side of the bag:

Sew into place, close to the teeth of the zipper. You can use a zipper foot if you’d like. I have used the regular foot and a zipper foot, and the zipper foot made it a bit easier to install.

Repeat on the other side, making sure that the fabric does not bunch. When done, turn the bag right side out and it should look like this:

8. You’re almost there! The strap. I found that it’s easier to sew this, if you do a little bit of ironing before hand. Take your strip of fabric (mine was a little over 12″ long and maybe 3/4″ wide) and fold one side into the middle and iron:

Fold the other side into the middle and iron:

Fold in half and iron. Then sew straight down the middle of this strip. Attach the ends on the inside of the bag.

Ta da! You’re done!

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