Shabby chic bag tutorial " Where William Morris and Paris meet".

The view out of my studio on a rainy day!

Last Sunday we had rain after 6 weeks of no rain and this was a perfect day to do some sewing.
I spend most of the day in my studio behind the sewing machine making a shabby chic bag.
The image on the fabric is from a decoupage sheet I bought at Spotlight and I transferred the image with
"Picture This" Transfer medium for light and dark fabrics.
I cut out the image from the sheet and then covered the front with the medium.
 I placed it down onto the fabric and I let the image dry for a couple of days.
I wet the back of the image with a damp sponge and very carefully rubbed of the paper backing till all the paper fluff was gone.
Next I found some of my old lace and pearl buttons and some glass beads and I sewed the different laces around the image.

The next stage was looking for some nice material for the bag and in my stack of materials I found a piece of Liberty material with the "Strawberry Thief" print, one of William Morris designs.
I think Paris and William Morris go well together, so the decision was made to use this piece of fabric.
With a fine zigzag stitch I sewed my lace pieces onto the fabric.
Then I decorated with the buttons and beads and sewed the piece onto the front of the bag with a fine zigzag stitch.

On Sundays our local quilt shop in Mapua is open till 3 pm and I dashed out quickly to get a small piece of French print fabric before closing time. The rain came down in buckets and the village looked deserted, but the lady in the quilt shop said she had a busy day, so I think more sewers did the same thing and worked away behind their machines and came out to get some quick supplies.

I cut out a small piece of the "French" fabric and ironed some interfacing on the back.
Then I sewed it onto the back of the bag piece with a fine zigzag stitch again.

Next I choose I heavy weight material for the lining of the bag and used my trusted over locker to sew the two lining pieces together.

The bag needed a handle, so I cut a wide strip of fabric, ironed the strip and then folded the first part to the center, then the second part to the center and then folded the piece double and sewed the handle together on the right side of the fabric.
 This way I don't need to turn the handle inside out anymore, what I hate doing.
Next I made a fabric fastener in the same way as the handle, but used a much smaller strip of fabric.
I sewed the bag together with the right sides facing then turned the bag the right way out and placed the lining inside the bag.
Next I folded the lining and the top of the bag neatly together and pinned the handle and a fabric fastener in place and then carefully sewed around the top of the bag.
To strengthen the handles and fastener I sewed a few extra times over the placement of the handle and fastener.
Lastly I sewed the big pearl button on, so I can close the bag.

Voila! A shabby chic bag made on a rainy Sunday!!