This tutorial can be used to sew a fabric lining for any kind of bag that is either flat or has a boxy shape.  Once you're done, you can use my tutorial for sewing the lining *into* a crochet bag to put everything together.

You need:

the unlined handbag
fabric for the lining
tape measure
sewing machine, scissors, pins, etc.


Basic Instructions

1) Measure the flattened, unlined handbag and fill out a lining worksheet.
2) Cut fabric for lining according to lining worksheet dimensions.
3) Fold lining in half, right sides together, and iron fold.
4) Sew 1/8" seams on both sides of the handbag lining's bottom. Skip this step if your handbag is flat and has no bottom.
5) Fold top edge over so the fabric is wrong sides together and iron fold.
6) Unfold top fold, and sew 1/2" seams up both sides.
7) Press side seams open.
8) Square the corners of the handbag bottom.
9) Fold down the top fold, and sew 3/8" seam around the top edge.


Detailed instructions (text is above its corresponding photo)

1) Measure your flattened, unlined handbag.  I measure the width (W) on the outside and subtract 1/4".  I measure the depth (D) on the inside from the middle of the bottom to exactly to the crochet row to which I will be sewing the lining.

The bottom (B) measurement is how wide you'd like the flat bottom of your bag to be.  I measure this on the inside the handbag with a tape measure while I eye-ball where I think the corners of the bag should be (this isn't shown).

Take those measurements and fill out a lining worksheet.

2) Cut fabric for lining according to the lining worksheet dimensions.  Measure twice, cut once.  Yes ... I cut my fabric on the floor. :)

3) Fold lining in half so the fabric is right sides together so the two "width" edges are touching each other and the two "height" edges are folded in half.  Iron along the fold.

4) (Skip to step 5 if you handbag is flat.) Lay your fabric on your ironing board right side up and put a pin where the iron mark is.  Use your tape measure to put pins on the right and left of the iron mark using the lining worksheet's bottom seam edge measurement. Do this on both sides.

Fold the fabric to the left, using the pins as a guide, and iron along the fold.  Do the same thing to the right.

After you iron both edge folds, pin them and sew a 1/8" seam along both folds.

5) Lay your fabric on your ironing board wrong side up and measure from the bottom seam to the top fold using the lining worksheet's top fold measurement.  Pin top fold and iron.  Let the ironed fold cool before you unfold it.

6) Unfold the top fold.  Fold the lining in half just like you did in the first step taking care to line up the bottom edge seams and the top fold iron marks.  Pin both sides and sew a 1/2" seam up both sides starting at the bottom fold and going toward the top edge.

7) Press side seams open.

8) Square the corners of the handbag bottom.  Start by standing the lining up with the bottom on the table and all the sides up, as if it were inside the handbag.  Fold the side seam down into the handbag and line up the side seam with the iron mark in the middle of the handbag bottom (inside view). Pin the outside corner on either side of the bottom edge seam. (outside view isn't pinned yet).  Repeat for other side.

The bottom edge seams will make a straight line across the corner where you should sew to square the bottom of the lining.  After sewing, cut off the corner.

9) Fold down the top at the iron mark making sure you keep the side seams pressed open.  Iron the top fold again if the iron marks are not sharp.  Pin top fold and sew a 3/8" seam around the top edge starting in a side seam.

When you finish, thread both sewing machine threads on a needle and pull to the back through the seam.  Tie them to the threads on the back side of the lining.  I love this trick so much.  Look how perfect that seam looks!

Here is the finished lining.  You can customize it however you'd like.  I prefer to add pockets, a snap, and a hand embroidered label.  As always, I'd love to hear what you think of this tutorial.  Especially let me know if anything is confusing or wrong.

Yesterday my copy of the Anticraft book showed up.  I had been able to resist buying a copy (yay me!), although I'd walked to the book store several times to 'visit' it.  I would whisper to the other people in the bookstore, "I'm in a book."  Well, not so they could hear.  Now I can be creepy in the privacy of my own home

The art direction is amazing!  I love the destroyed layout and Victorian clip art.  The book is definitely Punk-Goth-Industrial.  The photos are wonderful and so kick-assed-ly styled.  All three of my projects have OWLS in the photos!  So awesome!  I really had no idea what the book would look like, and I was so relieved that it looks so cool.

I love all their little asides in the book, too.  One page is full of nerdy, misanthropic, three-dollar words like, a recent favorite of mine, schadenfreude.  I'm always careful to say it "shod-en ..." (like clod)  because my Midwestern inclination is to say "shade-n ..."  Kind of like I used to say flan like plan.

Well, I'm totally proud of myself.  It's so funny, when I first found out they accepted my projects, I was worried about telling people because I didn't believe it would actually happen.  Then, once I realized it was a go, I was worried about telling people because the book might suck.  It's so awesome that it all worked out better than I ever could have imagined.

Hey, see that?  That's my name in a book.

In our family, the meal planning falls to my husband.  To lighten the burden a little, I made a template for him:

First Column: Meal
You'll notice that there are no days of the week.  We plan our meals, but we like to spontaneously eat out a couple times a week.  Leaving off the week day names gives us that kind of flexibility.  Our eating out is also the reason there are only six meals on the sheet.  Well, that, and the fact that seven would be too squished.

Second Column: Need
Here we list the items we need to buy for that meal.  Usually it's fresh vegetables, but it can also be stuff that we've run out of.  Being able to see what we need for the next several meals helps us plan our shopping so we don't end up walking to the produce store every night right before dinner.

Third Column: Notes
The note might be about the meal we're making, such as, "remember the corn" (which I seem to forget to make on rice pilaf night) or the note might be a reminder to take the steak out of the freezer and defrost it for the next night's meal.

I had so much fun drawing all the ridiculous little illustrations.  If I had to pick a favorite, it'd be the top view of the TV dinner on the TV tray.  I can't remember the last time I ate one, but I always thought they were *so* awesome when I was growing up.  Holy smokes, I just realized I remember when they came with FOIL over the meal, not plastic.  I'm getting so old.

If you'd like to use it yourself, it's available on my free downloads page.

My peacock paisley intarsia chart is going to be included in Picture Perfect Knits by Laura Birek, from Chronicle Books!  I love every single thing Chronicle Books puts out.  It's so exciting to know my design (and name!) is going to be in one of their books!  Yay!

Here's the announcement on their blog.  Here's the design:

To make the intarsia chart, I made a quick sketch in black marker, I placed the drawing under a sheet of Doane Paper, and then I started coloring in boxes.  Dramatic reenactment to the left. :)

Doane Paper is my newest-favorite office supply.  It's an awesome grid paper that's also lined.  I was hooked right after I printed my own sheet using his free sample pdf. It's perfect for lists, futuregirly graphs, intarsia charts, and project diagrams.  Plus, buying Doane Paper supports an indie creator. What's more awesome than that?

When I posted the Supercute Sea Creatures pattern, I gave the first five commenters a free copy.  Lucky for me, June, of Planet June was one of those people.

She made these adorable all-white sea creatures using my pattern.  Her post includes a details about how she sewed each creature and a close-up photo of each, so go read it. :)

For all you crochet lovers, June sells awesome amigurumi patterns for a staggering array of cute animals.  Definitely check them out.

I'm so excited about completing another pattern, which you can now get on the free downloads page. I designed the octopus in April, and he languished on my craft table since then.  Just last week, I decided to re-do my starfish pattern and add a jellyfish and fish to the group.

They are all easy-to-make and perfect for customizing.  There's lots of room for experimenting with color combinations and embellishments.  I think an all-white set would be really cool, too.  There are a couple extra photos in the Futuregirl Supercute Sea Creature Flickr group.

Each creature is between 3 and 4 inches tall and wide, which makes them the perfect size for ornaments, package tags, or clip-ons for backpacks.

I was really excited that a crochet project of mine was included in the Anticraft  book.  I designed this lined crochet tote bag so it would be a canvas on which you could add your own personalized design.  I submitted two designs for the book.

The "I [Skull] Trouble Tote" is actually mentioned in the promotional blurb, which totally set me on fire when I noticed.  I included a chart for the whole alphabet with this design so that the saying could be personalized,  Everyone has something important to say on their tote, right? :)

The second design is the Apothecary Tote.  I was inspired by Victorian apothecary medicine bottles.  When I was adding this design to the tote using my graph paper chart, I miscounted the spaces and had to redo it 4 or 5 times.  It was driving me nuts!  But I really loved how it turned out.


While writing up the crochet instructions for the tote, I realized how hard it is to actually explain in words how I do the seamless crochet technique.  Supplementing this pattern is a lot of the reason I put my seamless crochet tutorial on the web.

I also plan on posting a tutorial showing how I hand sew my linings into my crochet bags.  Several people have asked about it, and it would be a good supplement for the book, as well.

I'm compelled to write tutorials because I HATE it when I get the instructions for a project and they blithely say things like "sew the lining into the tote."  HOW?!  It seriously drives me nuts when they give no hint or clue about the techniques they actually used to do it.  I don't want to be a part of THAT problem. :)

I originally designed the Bad Eggs around Easter of 2006.  I did a set of four in black with embroidered designs.  At the time, I thought subversive Easter eggs (traditionally-colored eggs with non-traditional imagery) would be hilarious, and I got my chance to make some when they were accepted  for the Anticraft  book.

Look at that squirting arterial blood!  I can't tell you how much I love that decapitated bunny.  It warms my heart.  I couldn't be happier about how it turned out.  The white-on-white embroidery outlining his leg doesn't photograph well, but it looks good in person.  His tail is a bunch of floss loops making a 3-D puff.

Ahhhh ... a cute chick with a taste for eyes.  Chirp!  The eyes filling the basket are made with a tiny sequin and a black seed bead ... and embroidered eyelashes.  I do realize that if a chick was digging the eyeballs out of peoples' heads and collecting them in a basket that they wouldn't still have eyelashes, but I think that makes it all the more creepy. :)  It totally oogs me out that the chick is holding an eye by the optic nerve.

The other two eggs in the Bad Eggs set are based on the original designs.  One is embroidered with 360° flames and the other has evil eyes on each side in alternating warm and cool colors.

Certainly, you could make non-snarky Easter eggs with the pattern ... but why would you? ;)

Amazon.com is already shipping the Anticraft book!!!  I don't have my free copy yet.  I'm freaking out because I can't see the book and the pictures of my projects.  Is it professional looking?  Is it a nice book?  Are the instructions for my projects accurate? Ack!

Deep breath.

Without further ado, here is project one of the three projects I have in the book:

You probably recognize the Three Owls, the first original stuffies I designed.  For Anticraft I made them a little scarier.  Thank goodness for the felt and floss stash.  Look at all those greys!

This project might seem a little anticlimactic, which is why I started with it.  I love my sweet little owls, though, and I think their goth/industrial incarnation is cute in a menacing kind of way.

The red beady eyes on the little one make me think of Amityville Horror, which I read in one night when I was in the third or forth grade.  I wasn't quite old enough to realize "based on a true story" didn't mean it was true.  It scared the hell out of me. In that book, the demon, which appears as a pig sometimes, also appears as a set of red glowing eyes.  I swear, the red dots on my alarm clock still creep me out a little because of that book.

** update: This pattern is now available as a free download! **

Yay!  I can't believe how fast I finished up the pattern and all the web changes I needed to make.  The PDF includes the pattern pieces and instructions for both an adult and a baby seahorse.  They are super cute, if I say so myself.

You can check out the seahorses made by my awesome testers in the Futuregirl Seahorse Stuffies Flickr group.  Thank you so much Korallin, Diane, and Sara!

I should have mentioned in my last post that Andrew is the genius behind the seahorse photos.  He's the one that knows how to light things, knows how to position things, and knows how his camera works ... you know, everything.  I've learned a ton from him since I started this blog.  We always have so much fun setting up the elaborate photo shoots together.  He's the best and I'm so lucky he's mine!

Last night after I posted, I tied my copy of Crochet Me closed.  I'm totally serious.  I didn't just do it for the blog.  I haven't even opened it once - not once.  I think if I hadn't tied it closed, I would have been crocheting today instead of finishing up the pattern.  Now I'm so excited to get started on swatching!