Tutorial :: Lining an All Around Gusset for a Bag

Today on the Sewing Quarter I’ll demonstrate a sweet little shoulder bag designed by Minki Kim. The pattern originally appeared in Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine. The team at Sewing Quarter thought that the pattern would make a good project for the show, and they were right! It’s such a sweet little bag and is a great pattern for showcasing a number of different prints.

The design of the bag is a front and back body with an all around gusset. Frequently this style of bag has the seam between the gusset and the body pieces on the inside of the bag but Minki decided to put the seam on the outside so that a feature could be made of the binding. What a nice touch!

On the show I mention that there is another way of constructing the gusset loop so that you don’t have to bind the seam allowances. It may feel like you are fiddling about a bit, but it means that the seam allowances are enclosed and hidden inside the lining.

If you would like to follow this method for the Minki Kim bag then when you make the ‘sandwich’ for the base prior to quilting, make sure that you only make it with with the foam/fleece/wadding and the outside fabric and you leave the lining fabric for later.

First of all get your zip section ready, following your instructions.

You should have a zip in the middle, with a main/outer fabric on each side and a corresponding lining piece on the reverse. You may have a top stitch along side the zip or like in the Minki Kim bag you might have some quilting lines. If you have zip tabs then baste them at either end of the zip.

In this step work on one short edge.

Place your base outer fabric piece Right Side uppermost*, place your zip section on top with the Wrong Side uppermost. Next place the base lining on top of the zip section.

You should have the RS of the base outer against the RS of the outer zip section and the RS of the base lining against the RS of the lining zip section.

Sew across the short edge.

*if you are making the Minki Kim bag then you will have quilted this piece of fabric to some wadding, fleece or foam

Flip the two base sections (main fabric and lining fabric) so that their wrong sides are together. Give it a press so the the gusset lies flat. Make sure you’re careful not to melt your zip!

At this point you can top stitch on the base section from the right side, a few mm/ 1/8″ from the seam.

Trim the zip if necessary. Don’t forget DON’T use your fabric scissors to trim your zip!

Repeat the process to attach the base to the other end of the zip section.

Depending on the pattern that you are working with the zip section may be longer than the base section (or vice versa) and you may need to pull the zip section (or base) to meet the zip section.

You may like to move the zip pullers out of the way so that you can easily sew in a straight line.

You should end up with a gusset in a loop.

To make it easier to attach the gusset to the main body pieces you can baste around the outside edges of the loop. If your fabric likes to fray you may also like to run a line of zigzag stitches over the raw edges!

If you would like a reminder of all of the hints and tips that I shared in the show you can catch up on YouTube. The bag demo is in the first hour of the show!

If you are interested, I have taken the illustrations and instructions for this tutorial from my Pebble Wash Bag pdf pattern.

You can buy a copy of the pattern from my online store, my Etsy shop, or my Craftsy store

If you are looking for some inspiration then you can check out the Pebble Wash Bag Gallery . There are lots of images of versions of the Pebble Wash Bag that other people have made.