Vinyl and Fabric handbags

During the "softies craze" I also started experimenting with sewing vinyl into my handbags. I went to Fiona's and bought a few pieces of vinyl to start off with. Of course there is a bright pink among the chosen colours. I just love the texture of the black and tan coloured vinyl.

I did a lot of research on the internet on sewing with leather and vinyl, so I thought I was well prepared for this!

First on the list was a grey tweed with black vinyl insets. I have had the vision of this bag in my head for a while now...So off we go with a teflon foot, upholstery strenght thread and a sewing needle for leather among other things.

I used a very simple bag design to make my first bag and I also used a very stiff interfacing on the fabric. So far so good. The needle worked like a charm and my machine seemed to cope well. This vinyl is not very thick and quite flexible.

I wanted the lining to be bright and colourful so I chose some of my brand new small stash of Amy Butler Daisy Chain fabric. This fabric is called Water Garden. Very pretty. Once again I used a very stiff interfacing for the lining.


Next came the handles and the first signs of trouble. I wanted to make the handles just from vinyl but my sewing machine refused to move across the vinyl. This despite the fact that I was using a teflon foot. When I try to sew a single layer of vinyl, it worked like a charm but the moment it was more than one layer, it refused to move. I decided to make the handles vinyl on the one side and use the grey tweed fabric on the other side, sewing just on the fabric. It worked!

The outer bag pieces finished and looking good! Sewing them together was also no problem as I was sewing on the inside of the vinyl.

Yeah! The outer bag done! I really like this bag more and more. It looks so classy.

Lining all done and sewn in. Lots of obvious mistakes, I know, but I am really pleased with the bag. The topstitching I did on the inside of the bag top as once again, the foot would not move on the vinyl.

All done! And a really nice bag for everyday use or shopping as it's quite roomy inside with lots of pockets. The vinyl bottom helps to keep the bag clean and can just be wiped off. LOVE the new Amy Butler fabrics! Watch for my next post on the other vinyl/fabric bags I made! If you have any advice on sewing with leather/vinyl, feel free to leave a comment!