No Sew Faux Leather Bag
This project is all about Shopping My Stash - one of my favorite things to do! I use to love sewing back in the day. I would make most of my clothes and even sewed for others. I made my niece's prom dress when she couldn't find one she liked. My sewing machine is so old that when I took it in for oiling to a repairman at a local fabric store several years ago, he said they didn't make sewing machines like mine anymore. I guess that was suppose to be a compliment - but it's a Singer and it never broke down! So why get a new one? I just got tired of sewing. And usually, it had become easier and cheaper to buy something on sale that I liked instead of sewing something.
So I was going through my fabric stash recently and came across upholstery scraps in a faux suede leather leftover from when I covered my counter chairs just after we moved in over ten years ago. The fabric has really held up!
I loved the color and thought what a fun idea to make a no-sew bag out of it The upholstery fabric is not thick or firm enough to support the shape of a bag, so I thought about the many rolls of faux leather I've bought from Hobby Lobby that I have in my stash and found the perfect pattern to use as a liner to go with the solid color of the suede. So let's get started on making a no-sew bag!
Materials Used:
- Faux leather suede upholstery scraps
- Faux leather wide ribbon roll
- Beacon 3in1 Craft Glue
- DAP RapidFuse
- Clamps
- 16 gauge wire
- Wire Looping Pliers
- Wire Cutter
- Boning folder (optional)
- Snap fasteners
- Chain - 36" (handle)
- Scissors, yard stick, paper, pencil, chalk, masking tape, pliers,
The faux leather striped fabric is 24"x8" - a great size to make a small bag to hold essentials like a phone, credit cards, keys and other small incidentals!
First, make a pattern of the faux striped fabric using a roll of plain paper . . .
and use the bottom of the glue bottle to draw a scallop trim along the top bag flap.
Next, tape the pattern to the striped fabric using masking tape and . . .
cut the scallop design out. On hindsight, You could just make a pattern for the top flap part instead of wasting all that paper.
Once the bag pattern is cut out in the striped faux leather, lay it on top of the faux suede leather fabric, wrong sides together.
Then begin applying fabric glue on the wrong side of the striped fabric in sections. I started using Beacon 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue which is a crystal clear, instant grab and fast drying glue that is perfect for gluing fabric together. But switched to DAP RapidFuse which is a stronger glue that bonds virtually everything to secure the tabs and upper fabric sides for the bag chain.
Once the pieces are glued together, use a bone folder and hands to help smooth out any wrinkles that may occur while gluing the fabrics together . . .
on both sides. Let glue dry completely.
Once the glue is dry, cut out the entire bag design.
And fold it up at the 9.5" mark, creasing the bottom fold.
Open, and apply glue along the bottom side edges. Leave openings on both sides of the fabric just at the bottom of the scallops for the chain handle tabs.
Use clamps to hold the glued sides together until the glue dries.
To make the tabs, cut two rectangles, 4"x 2" folding the sides in at the middle, gluing in place. Then glue together the two folds to make the tab strips.
While the glue is drying on the tabs, use wire looping pliers to make two wire rings . . .
Then place the dried tab through the wire ring, using DAP RapidFuse glue to hold in place and let dry. Attach the chain after the glue dries and close the wire ring. Glue tabs at the open top area on each side and clamp together until dry.
For the snap fastener, I folded over the flap and marked the center (4") - just between the center scallop with a chalk marker to attach. Sorry, I didn't take pictures of applying the snap fastener. But here is a very short video to see how it is done. I used the same type of snap.
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I love this idea! Great job.