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Wednesday, August 27, 2014

DIY Round Corded Bag Handles the Easiest Way Ever

       
DIY Round Corded Bag Handles the Easiest Way Ever


When I started making my Faux Leather Base Tote Bag, I wanted to make it as close to the store bought bags as possible. I felt like I can really do it, until I reached the final part "Adding Handles". I really had no idea how to make round handles, except that I need to use some kind of stuffing to make them round.

When I searched Pinterest for Making Round Corded handles, I found these two awesome tutorials, Rolled Handbag Handles and Making Faux-Leather Handles. Unlike me, if you have good sewing skills, these tutorials will work beautifully for you. After few trials, I understood its not an easy job for a beginner like me to sew a perfect looking handles. But these tutorials gave me enough inspiration that I didn't want to give up so easily. 
         
The thoughts of making corded handles kept rolling in my mind and then I finally discovered an easy way. Do you know how to re-string a drawstring pants? Hurrah!!! You got this then :) Are you wondering how? Let's get started then.

DIY Round Corded Bag Handles the Easiest Way Ever

 Supplies needed:
  • 2 Vinyl (Faux Leather) Pieces of 27x3.4 inches
  • Sew witchery (optional)
  • 0.5 inch thickness filling cord
  • Walking Pressure foot for your machine (Teflon Foot might work too)
  • Sewing Notions (I used 100% Polyester Thread and 100/16 Needle as we got to sew through vinyl.)
  • A wooden dowel of 0.47cm thickness (I had few left over from my DIY Star Burst Mirror Project)
  • Strong and thin Jute Twine rope of 32 inches. ( Go for a strong twine. I failed several times using light to medium strength threads.)
The idea is to first sew flat handles and then insert the cording through your handles.

DIY Round Corded Bag Handles the Easiest Way Ever

1. Fold about 1/2 inch inside on both long sides of 27x3.4inches vinyl pieces and press with iron. I used 1/4 inch Stitch witchery to help hold the vinyl layers together. (Always use a press cloth on vinyl before ironing.)


 An easy way to determine how much width will work best for your cord is just to fold the long edges in, place cord in middle and wrap around. Don't forget to include seam allowance before you measure.


DIY Round Corded Bag Handles the Easiest Way Ever

 2. Again fold the vinyl piece into half, use binder clips (do not use sew pins as they can leave holes in Vinyl) to hold together and sew close with 1/8th inch seam allowance. This is where my walking pressure foot helped me get a good stitch on layers of vinyl.  Leave 2 inches on each end of the handles open.

DIY Round Corded Bag Handles the Easiest Way Ever

3. Now, lets get our magic wand ready!!! Take the twine and join it to one end of filling cord. ( I used a big fat needle I had on hand to get twine through filling cord and then secured it with a knot.)

4. Tie the other end of  twine to one end of wooden dowel and secure with duck tape.

DIY Round Corded Bag Handles the Easiest Way Ever

 5. Insert the free end of wooden dowel (the end which is not attached to twine) through the middle of our vinyl flat handle. Pull the wooden dowel out, this will drag the twine into handle and then the cord.

DIY Round Corded Bag Handles the Easiest Way Ever

6. Once the cord gets in place, cut the twine from cord.

DIY Round Corded Bag Handles the Easiest Way Ever

7. Sew close the 2 inch open edges on either sides of handles.
That is it!!! The magic is done :)


If you are here following my Faux Leather Base Tote Bag tutorial, then measure and mark where you want to position your handles on the bag. Sew the handles in marked positions and Tada!!! You are done.

Now show off your bag to your friends, family and ofcourse to me :)

Isn't making perfect corded handles easy this way? Now you can get creative and make colorful handles to coordinate with your bag colors. Enjoy!

I hope this tutorial was helpful for you. I was very excited when this trick worked for me, after almost an hour of trials. Thanks for stopping by :) Love to hear your comments.



23 comments:

  1. This is so clever! I could never do that! It turned out beautifully.

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  2. Such a cute bag!!! Great series of tutorials, thanks. PINNED! :)

    ~Lorelai
    Life With Lorelai

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  3. Those look fabulous!! I can't wait to have a place to sew again. It was so fun making bags. Thank you for linking up with #WakeUpWednesdayLinky Stop by this Wednesday to see if you've been featured.

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  4. You make such pretty bags. Is doing the handle this way easier than using a zipper foot with the cord already in it?

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    1. Thank you Marti. As I mentioned in my post a person with good experience in sewing might find it easy to get a good finish by sewing with cord inside using zipper foot. But i just started my sewing journey few months ago, with my skill levels I tried and felt its almost impossible for me to get a clean finish sewing 4 layers of vinyl with cord inside. So, this way worked best for me and as you can see the finish looks super clean. No one can ever guess how we did it ;)

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  5. This is a really great idea, Thanks for the tutorial!

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  6. Wow this is great! Thank you for sharing this post at City of Creative Dream's City of Links last Friday! I appreciate you taking the time to party with me. Hope to see you again this week :)

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  7. This is such a great tutorial! so helpful! Thanks for linking up, be sure to stop by tonight because you're going to be featured at Handmadeintheheartland.com!

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  8. Very clever way to insert cord and make perfectly rounded handles, Roopini. Your tutorial is so easy to understand and follow, too.

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  9. Great tutorial!! Those handles do look perfect!

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  10. Hi, I came across your technique as I want to use corded handles instead of regular flat straps. I'm also using faux leather/vinyl material and don't feel comfortable using a zipper foot.
    I like your technique because at least I know it is doable as I envisioned making my strap this way too!
    I'm going to carefully sew the twine within the tube, then sew the twine through the cord and pull the cord through the tube, skipping the dowel step. I hope it works!! I have a walking foot and I use it to sew zippers. They seem to turn out better than when I use the zipper foot. It saves time from having to switch the feet too.

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    1. Thank you Veronica :) I am glad my post helped you. Thanks for the tip on using walking foot for zipper. I will definitely try that.

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  11. Hi Roopini

    I have just recently started to teach myself to sew. I have started out making a few totes. Your gorgeous bag really caught my eye and I absolutely love how you create these handles. Thank you for sharing the details.

    Michelle :o)
    http://stitchunpickrepeat.blogspot.com.au/

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  12. Thank you so much for the quick tutorial! It's exactly what I'm looking for, at the right time. I was wondering if I could get the cording into the vinyl handle, and this is exactly how I will do it.

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  13. I just did this today. Smaller dimensions to accommodate the thinner cording I had on hand. Very snug fit that came out well on the first try. Thank you!

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