tote bag weave along

Tote Weave Along, Lesson 10 (Final)

Thank you for joining me in this series, it’s been terrific to have you following along, and hopefully by the end of this lesson you will have a beautiful, functional bag to use or gift.

If you missed the last lesson, you can check it out here.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click and purchase, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Last time we pinned the bag and lining together. Now we need to take the bag to the sewing machine.

At your sewing machine, sew right around the top of the bag with a straight stitch, removing pins as you go. I usually aim for a 1/4 to 1/2″ seam. This will sandwich together the lining, outer bag and handles together.

Trim the ends of the handles if needed. If your seam allowance is rough or wide, you can trim that too, for a neater finish. If you do trim, make sure to secure the raw edge with zig zag on your sewing machine or using your serger.

Give the bag a good press with a hot iron, paying particular attention to the top seams you just sewed.

You will recall that when sewing the lining pieces together, we left a gap along the bottom seam. This is where that little feature comes in as highly important!

Placing your hand inside the gap, begin to slowly and gently work the outer bag through the lining hole. As you do this, the lining will naturally start to turn inside out – this is what we want!

When the lining is fully turned out, give the seams where the lining and outer bag meet a good press, helping to flatten down the layers of seam and giving a much neater finish.

Next we need to stitch the gap in the lining closed, otherwise you will have a hole in the inside bottom of your bag! You can either hand stitch or machine stitch, just make sure that all raw edges are turned inwards.

Grab the end of the lining and push and tuck it to the inside of the bag. Take a bit of extra time to arrange the lining so that it sits flat inside and is sitting in the same shape as the outer bag with no bunchy bits. Pay particular attention to the corners, and poke the lining into them with your fingers.

Once you’re satisfied with the positioning of the lining, press the whole bag once again, slipping the iron inside the bag to flatten the lining. It can be helpful to slip the open end of the bag over the end of the ironing board to ensure the lining is sitting properly at the top.

The final step is optional. You can top sew around the very top edge of the bag, using a matching thread. This will help to secure the lining in place and stop it from moving back out of the bag. It also looks nice. But, you decide.

So, that’s it!

How did your bag turn out? Please let me know if you have made one, and of course, I always love to see photos.

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

Tote Bag Weave Along, Lesson 8

by Kelly 2 Comments

In the last post, we laid out, pinned and prepared all of the pieces of bag to sew together.

Now that we’ve pinned our 2 main bag panels together, we can take them to the sewing machine. With a straight, medium stitch, sew around 3 sides of the panels, leaving the top part that we didn’t pin open. Remove your pins as you go. When I’m sewing at the machine, I use my magnetic pin bowl to be able take pins out of the fabric quickly and pop them onto the bowl, where I know they’re not going to go anywhere. It has the added bonus of helping you find any pins that you may drop on the floor, especially on carpet. I just push the magnetic bowl around on the floor until it finds the pin, it’s very handy!

*This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on the link and purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

I’ve said it before, but it’s an even more poignant point for bag sewing, which needs to be sturdy. It is a total false economy to sew with cheap thread that is just going to break – either when you’re sewing or very soon afterwards. Use a good quality, “sew all” thread such as Gutermann.

When you have sewn around all three sides you will have what looks like a very big pocket!

Now we sew the lining fabric panels together in the same way EXCEPT that we leave the 6″ gap along the bottom edge. This is really important, as you won’t be able to turn your lining to the inside of your bag without it.

To sew the bag straps or handles, sew down one long side where the 2 edges join. You can also sew down the folded side if you like symmetry, but it’s not essential.

Take all of your pieces to the ironing board and press them on a steam setting. The level of heat to use will depend on what yarn you have used – you don’t want to scorch anything. If you’re worried about scorching, use a lower setting and/or a presser cloth. (This can be as simple as an old sheet or pillow case).

This part is best explained in the video, but to give you an overview, you put a finger into the corner of your inside out bag. Pinch the seams together so that the side and bottom seams are sandwiched together.

Hold a measuring tape against this seam from the top point.

Measure 2 inches along and place a pin horizontally across the pinched corner.

Place other pins horizontally across the corner at the 2″ mark, flattening the 2 layers of fabric together. You will end up with your corner in a triangular shape. Repeat to the other corner at the bottom of the bag. Now repeat the corner treatments on your lining fabric.

You can find all of this lesson in video format here:

Thanks for joining me today, as always, leave a comment about this lesson if you have any questions.

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

Tote bag Weave Along, Lesson 6

by Kelly 1 Comment

Now for the really exciting part! Once you’ve finished your required amount of weaving (check the Essential Project Information free download here) you can cut your weaving from the loom. Yay!

If you missed the last post about weaving and advancing the warp, you can find that here.

Release the warp tension at the back of the loom a little. If you want a fringe or are worried about your weaving unravelling at all, you can cut behind the reed which leaves plenty of fringe space.

Then, back to the front of the loom to release the brake, allowing you to easily unroll your weaving from the front beam.

You can either cut or undo the knots from the apron rod. I usually prefer to undo the knots (especially important if you want a fringe). Also, if you wove in a header with waste yarn at the beginning, now is the time to take that out.

Before wet finishing, it is essential to secure the raw edges of your weaving. A serger will make this job super easy, or a sewing machine set on zig zag stitch is also good.

You can find basic wet finishing instructions at the end of this video:

Or more detailed instructions in this blog post or video:

At the end of wet finishing and drying, you have some beautiful woven fabric ready to use and sew with. That’s what we’ll be talking about next time, I hope you can join me for that!

Until then…

Happy Weaving!

Tote bag Weave Along – Threading and getting ready to weave, Lesson 3

by Kelly 2 Comments

Now you’re ready to wind on your warp.

Your warp is secure with the choke tie you already put in place. If you need to read over the last lesson, please go here first.

Decision time! Are you going to warp with a helper or independently? This decision can often come down to whether you have someone to help you or not. But, if this is your first warp or if you’re not too confident with warping yet, I always recommend warping with a helper. This is a time to get to know your next door neighbour better! Or invite that friend or family member around for a cuppa and just casually mention that you need their help with something and that it won’t take but a minute!

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If you feel like you really need more information on warping at this stage, I have an excellent class, Warping for Beginners.

To roll your warp onto the back beam your will need something to use a separator. In the Youtube video demonstration I use my cardboard separators (also known as warping sticks) but you can also use a roll of paper or a blind if you prefer a continuous separator.

Having a helper takes the pressure off the newer weaver. You can concentrate on turning the clicker and pawl system which rolls the warp on without having to worry about uneven tension. It also means that you have two hands free instead of just one.

Place 1 cardboard separator for each full warp rotation.

I like to keep winding until the end of the warp is just over the front apron bar. This ensures that I have enough length in the warp for comfortable threading.

At this point I cut the warp ends, then undo the choke tie.

Time to begin threading! Before you start, I highly recommend that you watch my free Threading Tips video. So, for plain weave, I thread one in the left hole and leave one in the slot. It doesn’t matter whether you thread in the right or the left hole, but the left is my habit and I stick to it.

Keep threading in this simple fashion right across the width of the warp.

Now we tie on to the apron rod. Some weavers prefer to leash on but I only do that for slippery threads as I find I get better tension when I tie directly on to the rod. For this section, I will refer you to the video near the end of this post – it is much easier to show than to explain the knotting system.

Go back over your knots and tighten them all to an equal tension. You are trying to obtain firm and consistent tension, not necessarily to get them as tight as you can. If you have consistent tension, everything will tighten up when you advance the warp in readiness for weaving.

Here is the video that goes along with today’s lesson, I think you will find it very helpful!

Well, now we are almost ready to weave and things start to get exciting. Join me next time for options for putting in a header and beginning to weave!

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

Tote Bag Weave Along – Warping, Lesson 2

by Kelly 4 Comments

In today’s Tote Bag Weave Along post, we will cover warping. The last post containing details about materials can be found here.

You can download the PDF with essential project information below.

tote-bag-weave-along-essential-info Download

Prior to warping for any project I find it very useful to mark out the width of the project with some waste yarn to avoid having to count and re-count slots, which can be a bit tedious! I just thread the waste yarn through the slot and tie it at the bottom of the reed. Easy peasy.

*This post contains some affiliate links, meaning that if you click and purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

You can begin warping on the left or the right side of the loom, it doesn’t matter, but my habit is to start on the right. Tie your first length of yarn onto the apron rod, take it through the first slot and around your warping peg, back through the slot and then around the apron rod again. Alternate so that your thread goes over then under the apron rod each time.

By the time you are finished warping, you should have 2 threads in each slot. Place your yarn gently on the peg – we are not aiming for tight tension at this point, just consistent.

When you are finished warping the required number of ends, cut your yarn and tie off on the apron rod.

Now you’re ready to place a choke tie around the warp near the peg to keep it all together as you wind the warp onto the back beam. A piece of waste yarn in a bow is perfect for this.

The step by step video instructions for this lesson are available for free.

If you need the basic equipment to get started on this project, here are my suggestions:

I have a 24″ Ashford Rigid heddle loom (most looms will come with a 7.5 or 8 dent reed, a threading and reed hook, one stick shuttle and a direct warping peg.

Ashford also have a 16″ rigid heddle loom that is appropriate for this project.

A sewing machine is really invaluable for making bags or any other sewing you want to do with your handwoven fabric. You do not need to spend a fortune on a fancy schmancy machine with all the bells and whistles, just a basic straight and zigzag stitch machine. I have a basic Janome and am very happy with it.

I’m not going to tell anyone that a serger is a must have for sewing hand woven, but the truth is, if you do a fair bit of sewing it will make your life a whole lot easier. I have an old Toyota serger that I bought cheap many years ago as it was an ex demo model. Sergers have actually come down in price since I bought mine, so a new one would set me back the same as what I bought my old one for. I do recommend checking out Janome sergers if you’re in the market for one though.

Yarn suggestions area covered in the last post.

If you have any questions at this stage, please leave them in the comments below.

Next time we will learn how to wind the warp onto the back beam, then thread and tie on in readiness for plain weave.

Happy Weaving!

New weave along series!

by Kelly Leave a Comment

I’m so excited to be announcing my very first weave along! Officially it started a couple of days ago but participants are welcome to join in anytime. We will be making a lovely tote bag and instructions will be given from start to finish. I’ve been wanting to do this for ages and considering the response I’ve had on Facebook, lots of other enthusiastic weavers are loving the idea.

The introductory video can be found here and if you subscribe to my channel you can keep up with all the other videos as we go along.

There is also a very active Facebook group you can join to discuss the weave along, share photos and trouble shoot as necessary.

Hope you can join in the fun!