Okay, so you've washed and dryed your bag, and it should look something like this:
Now you need to trim it up a bit. I like to pull on some of the 'hairs' to get the bag to fray more, then I snip them off. You can groom your bag, or leave it a little hairy. Mine cleaned up to look like this.
I trimmed every seam and the handles. Remember, the bag will fray more when washed again, but shouldn't be as messy as the first time.
__________________ ~Heather
Mama to my two sweet boys Carter (10!) and Owen (3),
and my sweet girl Leah Charlotte, born 12/10/03
Oh! I almost forgot the wallet. Let's do that next. Cut a strip of denim for the wallet. Mine was 4"x 15", but yours can be shorter, thinner etc. This will be a sort of three-fold wallet, so keep that in mind when cutting. Now, use the denim to cut a lining piece of the same size.
Take the lining piece and fold under 1/4" (folding under to the wrong side. I pinned, which is easier than dragging out my iron, lol! Center it on your denim strip. You should have a border of about 1/4" of denim. Sorry about this crappy pic!
Now, sew the lining to the denim at one end, this will be the inside edge of the wallet. You need to decide how long your flap will be. Fold up the bottom (sewn) end to that point. You have a decision to make here about thread. I had my machine threaded with a top thread to match the lining and a bottom thread to mtch the denim. If you are feeling lazy (like me) you can just sew around the edge of the wallet (except the folded edge) about 1/4" in, making sure to catch the lining. Or, you could just sew around the top flap where the lining is exposed. Then change threads and do the sides of the wallet. That's how I did the first set I made. I just forgot to do that here. I might go fix it later.
Now you can attatch a snap to the flap and the inside of the wallet and go throw it in the wash to fray.
Okay, back to the bag! Take the lining and stuff it inside the bag, so the wrong sides are together. Turn under about 1/4" of the lining (so no raw edge will show) and pin.
Sew close to the edge of the lining, mich in the same way you assembled the bag. You don't want to run over the frayed edges, so stop and start very close to the corners. Your finished set might look something like this:
Now, I realize that there is more than one way to do this. Attaching the lining after you fray the bag results in 2 stitch lines on the outside. However, the first line is so close to the fray that you don't really see it. Also, matching thread helps.
You might instead want to attach the lining and then wash the whole thing to fray. This won't leave you with a nice crisp lining though, so you decide!
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