My First Angel Bag and Die Cut Flower Pin

I have been in tote bag and purse mode for a few months and came across a free pattern at Lola Again's blog. I just had to see if I could make one myself!

I loved that it didn't take much fabric to make it, only 1/3 yd of 3 different patterns plus some fleece and interfacing. It seemed easy enough, so I printed out the pattern and got started.

I cut out all the pieces and began fusing the interfacing to all the parts. I Be sure to be extra careful lining them all up when you are ironing them on or you will have to do some frustrating trimming of the excess. (Not that I would know much about that...) ;-)







Then you assemble and stitch the main pieces and make the handles. Then attach them to the front of the purse.

Sew the sides and bottom of the lining and attach the magnetic closure to the underside of the fabric.









Next, you make the pocket and attach it to the right side of the fabric in the lining.









The next step was tricky for me and, of course, I neglected to take pictures of it. The way that you deal with the corners of the purse, in both the body and the lining, caused me a lot of difficulty. For some reason my brain couldn't wrap itself around the instructions. I sewed, ripped out stitches and re-sewed a total of 3 times. WAAAAY more than I am used to. I finally found the tutorial that explained the miter a lot easier. Let me share it with you so you will have an easier time of it. Easier miter tutorial can be found here.

The next step is to turn the main body inside out and place the whole lining inside the body with right sides together and sew around the whole outside of the bag, leaving a little whole in the edge to turn it out.








You are basically done! Unless, of course, you want to make the flower. That is a different tutorial altogether. If you would like to know the basics for this kind of flower pin, you can watch this video tutorial of a flower pin. I have already bought fabric for 2 more of these cute little bags. They are so much fun!!