Purse Pattern Chronicles- Draping

Sketch in hand, it's time to get to work on the first prototype. I decided to do things just a little bit different this time. Rather than wasting a lot of materials making a test bag shell, I decided it might be best to play around with the most important aspect of this bag, that being, the ruffled top, before proceeding to anything else.

I knew I wanted a squarish base, and that really aids in determining how tall this Bag front piece needs to be. The big question was how wide would the Front pattern piece need to be in order to get the ruffling effect I was after, and the best way to figure this out, is to start draping.

Here's an old piece of home dec fabric I had in my stash. I cut it close to the height I wanted, and began playing around with ruffles. I fooled around with various ruffle depths, and varying amounts of distance between the ruffles, and finally was satisfied with this configuration. I knew the minimum width I would need to easily accomodate an Encore Insert, so I took a few notes about the final ruffle widths, then took the pins all out. Now I had my first & most important pattern piece.

From here, it's just a matter of using math to calculate how wide I want the triangular side vents & base to be, and transfering all my measurements to tracing paper templates.

Next up, a junk material prototype to test the accuracy of my pattern pieces, and to play around with the placement of the straps and the closure.

(WARNING!! This is an ugly bag! Please try to ignore the mismatched straps, and the basically hideous exterior & lining. I HATE wasting good materials on what I know will be a throwaway item!)

So, here's the 1st full test sample. Keep in mind that I didn't use fleece, so this bag looks flat and a bit sad. (I never use fleece on a first sample, because I feel like it can sometimes mask template problems in the beginning.)

All in all, I'm fairly satisified with how this bag is looking. I like the double ruffle at the top. I'm not sure about the proportion of the two ruffles, but it's worth keeping them this way to see how they look in the next bag, which will be fleeced.

The base and triangular side vent was a smooth fit, and I feel good about the strap location, and how I want to handle the magnetic closure, (although I rarely waste a closure on a bag at this stage).

As you can see, the bag will be plenty roomy on the inside, & once we get some fleece in this bag, I think it will "seem" a bit smaller than it really is.

And here's my favorite part of this design. There's a "secret pocket" hidden between the ruffles on BOTH sides of the bag. The pocket's easily big enough for a cell phone, and Ipod, keys, whatever else I need quick access to. But once the bag is puffed up with fleece, the contents of this pocket should be well protected and shouldn't fall out, even if the bag tips over.

So there you have it. Next up- a sample in "real" fabric, with all the other bells & whistles. I think I've settled on a name, but I'm keeping it to myself just a bit longer, letting it "perculate" so to speak. Maybe I'll reveal it next time.

In the meantime, if you have comments or suggestions for improvement, let me hear 'em!