Hello, Hello,

This is the purse I am currently carrying. It's my Lottie Dot Bag Pattern with black bamboo handles. I love this bag pattern because you can use almost any type of purse handle on it and it looks good. I didn't include the other handle instructions in the pattern but I wanted to show you how I did it here.

But first a close up of the yummy flower pins :)

Okay, now to the tutorial. The Lottie Dot bag has a strip of fabric, we'll call it a binding even though it's just decorative, around the top. I replaced the usual binding width with a wider one to accommodate the bamboo handle. I wrapped the fabric around the handle and measured how much to took to cover it completely. I added another two inches to that width.

I cut that width of fabric with my ruler and rotary cutter.

Next, I folded the fabric in half so the right sides were facing outward. Then I pressed the seam.

I open the binding up and pinned it along the top of the bag so the right side of the bag and the right side of the binding were facing each other.

With my machine I sewed around the top edge.

I opened the binding up and pressed the seam. Next, I folded an half inch over of the remaining raw edge and pressed it as well.

I found that starting in the middle of one side of the bag was the best way to get the handle where I wanted it. I started by pinning it in placed with the binding wrapped all of the way around. Since the handle is round I found it hard to pin much more than what I was sewing. Therefore I would hand sew what the pin was currently holding and then move down the top of the bag a little further. Pin a little, sew a little. Once a I neared the end, I trimmed the excess fabric and tucked the raw edges in and finished off the sewing.


Here's another version of my Lottie Dot Bag, this one is in the large black pinwheel print from Polka Dot Garden. It has the handles shown in the pattern and my mother in law is sporting this bag right now.


Have a great day,