Let's finish that hex bag!

Okay, I'm back with the end of the hex bag instructions. As I'm working my way through it, I realized that for this size, you can actually make a bag out of 2 fat quarters of the exterior fabric and 2 fat quarters of the interior fabric. So, you can have fun picking out fat quarters!

I did make one slight change between the last post and this. I opted to not include the instructions for the bag handles.

For the refresher:

• The materials list is at the bottom of this post:
• Pattern drafting is here
• Cutting the fabric and making the bag interior is here

Remember the 1/2 inch seam allowance!

For the exterior, start by ironing on the fusible quilted backing to your exterior piece. Then, with right sides together, pin the sides and the long bottom. Back stitch at the start and end, and sew along the three sides.

As with the interior, press the corner seams flat so that you match up the seams. Check the inside of the bag to make sure the seams are meeting and pin the outside along the seam. You can check both sides to make sure the pins are entering and exiting along the seam. Measure in from the very corner 2 inches and draw a line perpendicular to the seam. This line should be about 3 inches long. Now, sew along the line. It is very important to backstitch here. Repeat on the other side.

Trim the fabric to 1/4 inch from the seam. Turn the bag exterior right side out.

For the bag bottom, cut from the plastic mesh a piece that is 3 inches by 10 inches. To double check this measurement, measure along the seams at the bottom of the bag. You may need to trim the mesh down a little more. You just want it to fit the bottom and lie flat. I like to pin this to the bottom with safety pins while I install the feet to make sure it doesn't move.

To mark the location of the feet, I measure in 3/4 of an inch from the long side and 1.5 inches down from the short side and mark the fabric. I will mark it with a pen or a sharpie because you're going to be making an incision right through the marking and the feet will end up covering the ink.

Using your seam rippers, make a 1/4 inch incision for each bag foot. Depending on the size of the square of the mesh, you may also have to cut the mesh slightly for the bag feet to fit through the mesh.

Insert the feet from the bottom to the inside of the bag. You may need to use plyers to slightly separate the two prongs. Once there is enough of a separation, use your hands and bend the prongs down. Do this for all of the feet. The bag feet are now holding together your plastic mesh and the fabric.

When all the feet are installed, the inside of the bag should look like this:

The bottom exterior looks like this:

And now for the magical last steps
The exterior piece is right side out. The interior piece is wrong side out. Place the exterior piece inside the interior piece so that right sides are facing each other. Start by matching and pinning the seams. Once the seams are pinned, pin around the sides.

Sew around the top edge of the bag with your 1/2 inch seam allowance, being careful at the seams. You can backstitch at the start and end, or stitch straight through while making sure that the first and last stitches overlap and lock. You want these stitches to be locked in place. Trim your threads.

Remember, the bottom of the interior lining is open. Reach your hand through and pull the bag exterior out.

Seat the interior inside the exterior. Press the top seams and topstitch around the edge. Try to stitch as close to the edge as possible, while catching all layers of fabric. Be careful at the side seams so that you don't end up introducing any pleats.

Now, to finish off the sewing, pull the interior back out. Press a half inch seam allowance into the two open sides. Pin the gap together, matching the folds and top stitch the bottom closed, remember to back stitch at the start and end.

If the hex frame is fully closed, and the screws are in, you'll need to remove the screws first. The easiest way I've found to insert and remove the screws is to hold the frame in the open position so that the two sides are lying in a flat straight line. Sometimes, a third hand is useful here. Once it is open, you can push the screw in or out.

Once you have the frame disassembled, slide each frame piece through the frame casing. I like to lead with the side with one hole.

Hold the end open and put the pin in. Repeat on the other side.

And now, the bag is done!!!


I hope you had fun with this tutorial and were successful in your bag making attempt. I've shown you my thought process in the pattern drafting and how the bag was created so you can use different sized frame and make different sized bags based on this basic concept.

Hex Bag - Fabric pieces and the bag interior

Brief refresher

• The materials list is at the bottom of this post:
• Pattern drafting is here

Well, now you have your pattern drawn and cut out. The straight side that you labelled for the Fold Line, fold your fabric in half and place that side along the fold. Pin it down and cut around the other sides. Cut:

• 2 pieces from the exterior fabric
• 2 pieces from the interior fabric
• 4 pieces from the medium weight interfacing

From your remaining interior fabric, cut:

• 4 pieces 5 inches by 8 inches for the interior pockets
• 2 pieces 9.5 inches by 2 inches for the frame casing - If you don't trust your top stitching skills, you may want to make it 2.25 inches.

Also cut 2 pieces of interfacing 9.5 inches by 2 inches. Iron this to the back of the interior fabric for the frame casing.

If you want to make straps for the bag, cut from the fabric of your choice:

• 2 pieces 21 inches by 4 inches
• 4 pieces 4.5 inches by 4 inches

The straps are designed for a square ring that is 1 inch long on the inside of the ring. The straps are folded the long into 4 parts. If the interior of your ring measures something else, take that measurement and multiply it by 4 to get the required width.

We start with everything that is being sewn to the interior of the bag.

Let's Get Started - Pockets!

Remember our .5 inch seam allowance!

Take two of the pocket pieces and pin them right sides together. Make sure to backstitch at the start and end to lock in the thread. Pivot and turn at the corners. Starting 1.5 inches from the end of one of the longer ends, stitch to .5 inches from the end, turn and stitch through the short side, then the long side, then the next short side. Pivot and turn and stitch another inch. Cut your thread. Trim the corners. In the picture below, I sewed with a white thread that blends into the fabric. I've drawn in the line you want to sew in grey.

Turn pocket right side out, making sure to push the corners out, and iron the sewn edges. Fold in the the unsewn edge and press flat. Top stitch the sewn long side, making sure to back stitch at the start and end. This is the first pocket. Repeat for the second pocket.

Frame casing
For each frame casing piece, make sure you have the interfacing ironed on to the bag.

Fold in half an inch from both short sides and one of the long sides.

Cut a little notch out of the corners of the fabric where it folds double to decrease the bulk.

Iron, press, make it all hold.

Top stitch the short sides of each frame casing. Make sure to back stitch.

Make sure you have a piece of interfacing ironed and fused to the back of each interior piece. For each interior piece, center the frame casing on the top of the bag top edge, matching the edges. Right sides of both pieces facing up. Pin.

Top stitch the frame casing to the interior along the long folded edge of the frame casing.

Pocket Placement
One pocket piece on each interior piece. The unsewn long edge of the pocket 2.5 inches from the bottom of the interior. Center the pocket from the sides. Pin and top stitch around the sides and bottom. Again, back stitch and pivot the corners!

For a divided pocket, figure out where you want the divide placed and you can either mark it with a fabric pencil that will disappear or, I taped a piece of painter's tape 1/4 of an inch away and used it as a guide for my presser foot.

Putting the inside together
The bottom of the bag is the long side of the trapezoid. Place the right sides together of your interior pieces and pin. Mark the center 8 inches of the bottom of the bag. DO NOT SEW THESE 8 INCHES. This is how we will turn the bag right side out after we sew it to the exterior. Sew each of the sides, pivot at the corner, and sew to where you've marked. BACKSTITCH! It is very important to backstitch on the bag bottom because you don't want the stitches to come loose as you're working with it.

For each corner, flatten the seams open, you will have a hard time ironing but you can certainly give it a try. Flatten each corner and match the seams. Pin through both seams of the side and bottom, this will help to keep them matched. Measure 2 inches along the seam in from the corner. Draw a line perpendicular to the seam.

Sew along this line and backstitch! Trim the corner off, 1/4 inch from the seam, we don't want a lot of bulk here. Do this for both corners and then you can see the form!

Hex Purse Tutorial - Materials & Pattern Drafting

This is going to be the first in a series of posts on how I made my little hex frame purses. I don't want to put it all into one BIG blog post because you'll be reading forever. Instead, I plan to present it in sections
1. Bag template design
2. Fabric pieces, pockets, interior
3. Exterior and putting the bag together

I gave you the materials list here

Design Thoughts

Before I get into the pattern drawing, I wanted to explain a few things.

• I chose to use a 1/2" seam allowance. You can use whatever you want. Just note that, I'm using a 1/2" seam allowance throughout this series and in my pattern. This pattern is written with a 1/2" seam allowance built in. If you choose to use something else, you'll need to make some alterations.
• The 9" hex frame measured out to about 9.25" at the widest points so that is the measurement I used. With the hex frame, the top of the bag lays flat and I didn't want there to be too much space around the hex frame so I aimed for a finished measurement of 9.5" at the top. If you choose a different sized hex frame, you can use this idea as a jumping off point in designing your own bag.
• Just a reminder, the finished bag measures 9.5 inches across the top, is 6 inches tall. The bottom measures 10 inches long by 3.25 inches wide.

Marking out my pattern

I started with a piece of 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. My printer is next to my sewing area. You can use newsprint as well but make sure that you have at least one straight edge. Make the straight edge the fold edge.

Step 1. Line up two of the edges on the rotary cutter mat. My left and bottom edges are lined up and I measure from the left edge. Start by drawing a line across the top of the paper. This is the top of the pattern.

Step 2. Draw a line 5.25 inches from the left edge of the paper. This is the width at the top of the bag.

Step 3. Next draw a line 7.25 inches from the left edge of the paper (or 2 inches to the right of the first line). This width represents the full width of the bag plus the side width and seam allowance at the finished bottom of the bag.

Step 4. Draw the next line 9 inches down from the top edge you drew. This is about where the finished bottom will fall.


Step 5. The next line is drawn 2 inches down from the last line. The space between these two lines will the bottom of your bag, including seam allowance.


Step 6. The next line you draw, well, please refer to the picture below. The two points you are trying to connect are the opposite corners of the rectangle created in steps 1 through 4 but extend it through to the line drawn in step 5. This is the side of your pattern.


Step 7. Mark the left side as the fold line for the fabric. You'll also want to write in the number of pieces to cut from this template. You'll want 2 from the exterior fabric, 2 from the interior fabric.You'll also cut 4 from your interfacing. Also note that you have 1/2" seam allowance.


Step 8. Cut out this trapezoid shape. This is your template.

FO Friday - A larger bag!

I had to go get some brown fabric to make the handles and finish up this bag. More zebra print on the handles felt like over kill.

The bag measures 9.5 inches across the top and 6 inches tall. The bottom of the bag measures 10 inches long by 3.25 inches wide.

I really like the size of this bag! I can fit a small knitting project with a wallet and phone. Or I could probably fit a medium knitting project and make it a knitting bag.

Monday, I'll start the instructions for constructing one of these bags, starting with drawing out the pattern. For now, a materials list:

• 1/2 yard exterior fabric - heavy weight quilting cotton or lighter weight home decor fabric - You can also use 2 fat quarters
• 1 yard interior fabric - quilting cotton - You can also use 2 fat quarters
• 1 5/8 yard medium weight interfacing
• 9 inch hex purse frame - I bought mine from Sun Belt Fashion. It seemed sketchy when I placed the order since I didn't get any acknowledgement of my order but a few days later, my order showed up. An alternative source is Ghees.
• 4 bag feet - Also Sun Belt Fashion, Ghees, or Joanns
• 4 rectangular rings, interior width measures 1 inch - I bought mine at Joanns. If you choose to buy a different size, just know that you should alter your purse strap width.
• plastic mesh grid - for something solid in the bottom. You can find this at your local craft store
• matching thread
• ruler, rotary cutters, scissors, paper, pen/pencil, pins, and other general sewing needs.

A walking foot and a heavy duty needle for your sewing machine is recommended for when you're topstitching through some of the bulkier parts of this.