My design process: Part 4- Embellishment and finishing

Once all the pieces are finished, they must be put together. This a very important step, though not my favorite. I often put off the sewing together which is why I have a studio full of mostly finished projects. Once I force myself to finish though, the project is transformed into a stunning finished item.

With this purse, I decided to add a fabric lining. I measured the fabric, cut it so that there was a fold on the bottom, then used my sewing machine to sew up the sides and hem the top.

Next, I did some finishing on the knitted part of the purse. I sewed the beginning and end of the I-Cord bind off together so that it looked nice and neat.

I sewed up the bottom of the purse along the cast on edge.

The zippered pocket took a bit of work. To make the zipper the correct length, I reinforced it with my sewing machine where I wanted the end of the zipper to be.  I then cut the zipper a bit past the new end. After that, I sewed the two pieces of the pocket to either side of the zipper and then sewed the pocket in place on the fabric lining.

The fabric lining was then ready to be sewn into the knitted purse.

Next I sewed on the handles.

 Lastly, I added some crochet flowers to the front of the bag.

Finally the bag was finished! This particular project had a lot more finishing than I usually do, but the end result was really nice. I completed it just in time to snap a few pictures and wrap it to give to my niece for her birthday.

The next step will be to edit the pattern for publication.

Check out the rest of the posts in this series:

My design process: Part 1-Planning

My design process: Part 2- Swatch, Gauge and Calculation

My design process: Part 3- Knit it! (and write it down)