Custom Built Purse - Making the Bag Strap

To make the strap for your bag, cut out two strips of fabric, twice the desired width of your strip, and to the desired length. I cut my strips 2” wide by 48” long. Cut out fusible interfacing the same length and width as your strips, or purchase strap interfacing (I purchased Clover Create-A-Strap with Nancy).

 

Fuse the interfacing to the wrong sides of your fabric strips. Fold the sides in to meet in the middle and press. You can use a bias tape maker, or you can fold in manually. I folded in manually because the strap interfacing made it very easy.

The next step is optional. I added webbing the width of my strap inside both folded pieces of fabric to provide more durability for my strap.

Place the two strap pieces folded sides together and sew using topstitching thread about a ¼” from the one edge. Take your time to get a straight line and to make sure that your needle doesn’t break if you’ve added webbing like me, since the needle will need to go through four layers of interface fabric, as well as two layers of webbing.

Once done the one side, sew along the other side, again a ¼” from the edge.

You have now made your strap.

To attach the strap to your bag, decide if you are going to use metal rings or something similar. If you are just going to attach the strap to the bag without any rings, fold the end over ¼” on the inside of your strap, and then fold 2” to the inside of the strap. Pin into place onto your bag and sew on using a square reinforcement stitch, as shown below. I sew over each line at least a couple times, to make sure that the seams don’t come undone.

Do the same thing on the other side, and you are done.

If you are going to use rings, loop the strap through the ring, and then square reinforce the strap end to the strap, just like you attached it to the bag above.

To attach the ring to the bag, make half a strap piece with the webbing on the inside. Cut the webbing a ¼” shorter than the strap, so that you can join the edges easily and it will not create a large lump where your seam is. 

Loop the strap piece through the ring and sew the two ends together. Trim the excess.

Flip your loop over, so the outside is showing, and the insides are touching. Sewing along the edges, sew the two side of the loop together, with the joining seam to be hidden at the back. Sew one seam parallel to the ring up close to the ring, so that the ring doesn’t slide around too much.

Pin into place on your bag and attach the mini strap with a square reinforcement stitch, same as above.