Lecien Jelly Clip purse tutorial

I have made loads of these awesome purses lately, I have changed and adapted a few things as I went along and promised a quick tutorial for Jan and Trash (and I am catching up with them both later today) so here it is.

Using the pattern that comes with the purse, cut out your outer fabrics, inner fabrics, and I also cut out a layer of Vilene 620 ( a light iron on fleece). NOTE: those notches are to mark the darts, they are not cutting lines.

See ! Use the notches to mark the darts on both your outer and inner fabrics. (I have already ironed the Vilene to the wrong side of the outer fabric)

Look at those sexy darts !!!

This is the bag outer wrong sides out ( vilene side showing). Pin and sew around the bottom and sides of the purse. Do the same with the lining.

Once sewn, tuck the lining (wrong side out) into the purse (right side out). EASY ! Double check that the right sides are together... No really, just check.

Pin all around the top of the purse, leaving a turning gap ( as indicated on the pattern). In a genius move, the turning gap is at the top so it doesn't even need to be sewn closed later as it is hidden in the frame. Sew , and then be sure to clip the seams at the side seams.

Turn the whole thing out through the turning gap and tuck the lining into the purse.Yay ! Looking good so far !

Take the paper twine that comes in the kit and chop it in half. Things get a little inexact here but bear with me. Poke the paper twine into the frame to measure and then cut it so it is 1/4 inch shorter than the frame slot at each end.

Working on only side of the purse at a time is easiest. Find the middle of the purse and the middle of the twine and mark it. The twine is much shorter than the top of the purse, because the purse is slightly gathered.

Now we need two marks, one about 1 inch From the side seam of the purse (yellow pin) and another one about 3/4 inch in from that ( red pin). Do the same at the other end. The yellow pin shows where the end of the twine will be. The red pin shows where we will begin gathering. I use a needle and thread and run a gather stitch along the edge of the purse, gathering it until the purse fits the twine.

Try not to get too strssed about the gathering, mine are all pretty rough but once it is in the frame, you really don't notice.

Using a small zig zag stitch on my machine I sew the paper twine to the purse, trust me, this is the big secret. Ok, now go and repeat all that pinning and gathering and twine sewing for the other side of your purse. 

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Spread a small amount of glue inside the frame. I used a kitchen skewer to make sure I had it pretty well covered. Then simply poke the purse into the frame. I used a flat headed screwdriver to really wedge it in. Leave it alone until it is perfectly dry before you attempt to glue the other sid.

I have tried two different glues so you can choose whichever you prefer.

1. Superglue : it is super quick and as strong as strong but if you spill it on the frame it is never coming off. I don't know about you but always end up glueing my fingers together or glueing things to things that shouldn't be glued with this stuff. I made a purse for market and used superglu and I used it for days, full of heavy stuff, then came home and tossed it in the washing machine and it is still holding up just fine.

2: PVA - This one is more likely to come blobbing out of the frame as you push the purse in, but it dries clear and can be removed. Again, the purses I have made were super strong with this glue as well.

In the interests of this tutorial I did try and rip the purses from their frames. No way was the superglued one moving. I was able to remove the PVA glued one, but it took a lot of effort. In conclusion either type of glue will hold your purse just fine unless you are in a bar fight.

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