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Designed by Shirley LeGroux
Klaiber’s Sewing Center Sewing Educator

Materials List:

1 piece 13"x13" denim
2 pieces 3"x13" denim
1 piece 13"x21" cotton fabric for lining
1 piece 13"x19" fusible medium-weight interfacing
1 piece 3" hook-and-loop fastener
2 pieces 18" long webbing for handles
1 spool YLI Woolly Nylon Extra or Metallic thread
3 spools navy blue serger thread
1 spool variegated thread to complement the Woolly Nylon

1. Hoop a piece of peel and stick tear-away stabilizer into a 5"x7" hoop and mount the hoop into your embroidery machine threaded with the variegated thread
2. Place a reference dot on the right side of the large piece of denim 2.5" from the top edge and 6.5" from the left edge of the fabric
3. Place the reference mark under the embroidery foot such that the top edge of the fabric is away from you and press the denim to the stabilizer
4. Select an appropriate large script monogram letter and embroider the monogram onto the denim
5. Remove the denim from the stabilizer and tear-away any visible stabilizer that it left on the wrong side of the fabric
6. Set your Baby Lock Evolve serger up for the chain stitch using the Woolly Nylon in the lower chain looper and a navy thread in the chain stitch needle (needle should be in the center cover stitch position)
7. Place the denim fabric wrong side facing up on the sewing table of your serger. You will stitch two chains on either side of the embroidered initial top to bottom – they can either be straight or meandering
8. Fold bag in half and mark 1.5" from fold on the back side of the bag. You want to make sure that the next chain stitches aren’t on the bottom of bag. Make three additional chain stitches left-to-right on the back side of the bag
9. Set your serger up for a wide two-thread flatlock stitch using the Woolly Nylon in the lower looper and navy thread in the left needle
10. Lay your large piece of denim right side down and one of your 3"x13" pieces of denim right side down along the top of the large denim piece matching top edges together
11. Stitch the top edges with the flatlock stitch by just trimming threads on the cutter as you stitch. Open and pull the two fabric pieces flat
12. Repeat at the bottom using the other narrow strip of denim
13. Set your serger up for a three-thread wide overlock stitch
14. Fold your denim piece in half with right sides together matching flatlock seams and stitch down the two edges
15. Fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of the lining fabric leaving 1" exposed at the top and the bottom of the cotton lining
16. Fold the lining piece in half with right sides together and stitch the side seams
17. Take your denim bag (still with wrong side out) and stitch a 1.5" "dog-ear" on each bottom edge to form the bottom box edge
18. Invert your denim bag
19. Turn down about ½" of the denim all the way around the bag and press
20. Insert the lining working the lining into the corners of the bag and turn down the top of lining to match the top edge of the denim bag -- press the lining.
21. Remove the lining and fold it by matching the side seams to find the center of each side of the bag – mark the center with a pin
22. Center the loop of the fastner to the center of one side of the lining and stitch around the edge of the loop material to fasten it to the lining. Repeat with the hook portion to the opposite side of the lining
23. Reinsert the lining into the bag matching top edges – pin in place
24. Insert about 1" of the webbing material to form the handles about 1.5" from each side of the bag
25. Top stitch around the entire top of the bag (remember to remove those pins as you go) and reinforce the handles with a box stitch around the webbing at each location
26. Enjoy your new bag!!