My Nerdy Valentine's Day Purse

This is the smaller Heidi Foldover Wristlet from Swoon Patterns. It is available at https://swoonpatterns.com/shop/heidi-foldover/ Two sizes, the Wristlet and the larger Clutch bag, are available in the same free pattern. Which is a fantastic deal, in my opinion.

I have loved the TV show Supernatural for many years now. This fabric came up in my Facebook feed and I could not resist it. It features candy conversation hearts, with many famous quotes from the show. My personal favorite is “My 'people' skills are 'rusty' ”. Misha Collins, the actor who plays Castial, is so talented.

Anyway, back to the sewing. This time, I had plenty of vinyl to do the accent piece on the bottom as the pattern shows. A large remnant from Joann's Fabrics worked nicely. It was a good thing I had lots to work with, as it would turn out. I had to cut and sew one side twice because I forgot to put my walking foot on the machine. Rookie mistake. The stitches turned out really uneven. Some short, some long. Here are some tips for sewing with vinyl and/or leather, so you don't have the same problems I did.

A heavy duty sewing machine is not required, but it does make the job easier.
Change your regular presser foot for a Teflon or a walking foot.
Use a leather needle in your machine.
Do all seams at one time. Or at least make sure the stitch length is the same on all pieces. This is just for aesthetic reasons, but it looks so much nicer when finished.
You may have to carefully “wheel” the machine to maneuver over areas with several layers of vinyl.
Don't use pins. The small holes they leave are permanent in vinyl and leather. I used a bit of fusible tape and carefully ironed the edges down, using a pressing cloth over the vinyl.
And always, ALWAYS clip and notch your curves to help them lay flat. I only folded my vinyl over a quarter inch, but I still clipped the edges and it made all the difference.

I could not resist making a matching coin purse using the Heart Pouch available at https://www.patternsforpirates.com/product/heart-pouch/. I printed it at 75% so it would fit nicely in the smaller wristlet. This, I do not recommend if you can help it. It was just a little too small to sew easily. But I love it and I'm glad I powered through.

I hope these vinyl and leather tips will help you with your sewing. Have fun and happy sewing!

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