Recently I was invited to a party and I found myself in need of a new handbag. And since I don't really like to "waste" money for something I might use only a couple of times, I decided to make myself one. I was in a little bit of a rush so it's far from perfect, but I'm quite happy with the result. My sewing skills and knowledge are quite limited, so please forgive me if the instructions don't quite make sense :)

Materials and tools I used:

Materials:

4 x 2 litre water bottles
black fabric (old shirt)
pink fabric (old dress)
green fabric (old shirt)
zipper
belt
black, pink, green thread
6 x snap buttons

Tools:

Scissors
hobby knife
marker
ruler
sewing machine
stapler
fabric pencil
iron
needle
binder clips
pliers
washable fabric marker
pins

Step 1: Prepare the Bottles

Remove all labels from your bottles and clean off the sticky residue (I like to use lighter fluid, but if you don't have/don't want to use this, there are plenty of other solutions out on the internet). Take the hobby knife and puncture the bottle just after it curves. Cut the top of the bottle off with scissors. Carry on cutting through the body of the bottle in a straight line until you reach the bottom. Then cut off the bottom of the bottle. Wipe if necessary.

Step 2: Pattern

Print out the template provided and stick the first page onto your worktop to keep it in place. Tape a bottle piece onto the top of the template and draw the lines with a ruler and marker . Repeat for the other three pieces. Take the second and third page of the template, tape the piece onto the worktop again and trace the shapes onto the bottle pieces.

Place the bottle pieces into the sewing machine one at a time and sew over the lines with a black thread. Try to do this slowly as the plastic sheet won't always travel through the machine so smoothly, it can get stuck anywhere the surface isn't flat. Once done, cut out the front and back, sides and the bottom.

Clean the bottle pieces with a cotton pad and alcohol. Cut off the corners of the bottom piece.

Score all of the sides of the bottom piece and the sides of the side pieces with a hobby knife. Don't be too harsh, you don't want to cut them off, this is just to make it easier to bend. Bend the scored edges.

handbag template.pdf
Download

Step 3: Assembly

Align the front and side piece and staple together. Repeat for the side-back, back-side and side-front. Cut off the sharp bottom corners and draw a 1cm line along the bottom.

Using the sewing machine stitch the 4 sides of the handbag to be. Take the thread out of the sewing machine needle and use the sewing machine to puncture holes along the bottom where you drew the lines. Repeat the process for the bottom piece.

Place the bottom piece inside the walls of the handbag, align and staple around.

Step 4: Hem

Cut out strips about 2cm wide from the black fabric. On each strip, turn in about 0.5cm on both sides and iron over. Fold in half and iron over again.

Place the hem over the bags edge and sew on with a black thread using the presewn holes. Repeat for all of the bag edges (I found it easier to sew the inside side of the hem with long stitches first, followed by the outside side. This way I didn't have pay as much attention to the aligning of the hem). Leave the two top edges as they are for now.

Step 5: Zipper

Sew the zipper between two pieces of black fabric and hem the edges. Draw another 1cm line along the top of the bag and pierce it with a needle.

Align the zipper with the top of the bag and secure it with binder clips. Stitch together and repeat for the other side. Hem the top of the bag.

Step 6: Handles

If you don't own/can't find a belt like mine, you could use two thin belts and maybe a clip from something else instead.

Unscrewed the clip from the belt and screw in two short pieces of the black fabric if applicable.

For the back side of the bag: align the belt end with a side of the bag, secure with a binder clip and stitch together on both sides of the belt.

For the front side of the bag: place the clip centrally to the front side of the bag, secure with binder clips and sew the ends together with the bags edges. Sew on the second belt.

Throughout this step I was using pliers, since my fingers felt quite tired from the previous sewing.

Step 7: Insert

Trace the insert template onto the pink and green fabric and cut out. Take the pink cutouts, pin the sides together and stitch. Leave about 2cm from the top un-stitched. Turn the pocket inside out, straighten and pin the edges. Do the same for the green fabric, but leave one of the smaller sides open.

Machine sew the edges for more of the "edgy" look. Turn the pink pocket inside out again and place the green one inside so that the nice sides of the fabrics are facing each other. Stitch along the top. Turn the pieces inside out once more through the opening in the green fabric and stitch the opening shut. Straighten and pin the edges where pink joins the green fabric and sew along.

Step 8: Snap On

Sew two pairs of snap buttons on the inside of the handbag in a cross pattern (male-female|female-male). Measure the distance between the buttons and pin the snap buttons onto the insert accordingly with safety pins. The buttons should follow the cross pattern as well. Once pinned put the insert inside the bag and make sure that the buttons are in the correct place and position. Sew in place.

Step 9: Final Thoughts

Even though I'm very pleased with the outcome, there is a lot that could be improved. When I started this project (just like most of my other projects) I only had a very vague idea of what I would like to achieve with no planning ahead. If I was to make another one of these I would probably try to do more of the sewing with the machine, even though this was quite difficult due to the material not being as adaptable. Also I would most definitely start using the pliers very early on, since I could barely move my hand by the end of the day. I would also make the hand stitches more uniformed if I wasn't pressed for time.

I hope you've enjoyed my Instructable and if you decide to make one of these I'll be giving a FREE PRO Membership to the first 3 members (1 year, 6 months and 3 months) that make a bag using my I'ble and post a photo in the comment section bellow. So happy sewing ;)