Goodbye Lindsay Wristlet Week - It Has Been Fun

Today is the last day of Lindsay Wristlet Week - I hope you have enjoyed learning some way to change up the Lindsay Wristlet a bit! It was fun learning from Kristina how to increase the size of the Lindsay Wristlet and how to add a slip pocket. Thanks Kristina for teaching us how to do both of those things! It was fun for me to give away three of my patterns - congratulations to the winners! The 15% off sale will go through today at 10:00pm (MDT), so don't miss out - get any Uniquely Michelle patterns now! Remember to enter the coupon code LINDSAYWEEK during checkout in my Website Shop or in the Uniquely Michelle Etsy Shop. You can also purchase patterns from the Uniquely Michelle Craftsy Pattern Shop where I have reduced the prices to reflect the 15% off.

I would love to see pictures of everyone's Lindsay Wristlet creations, whether you change it up some or just follow the pattern! Please share any pictures on Instagram (#uniquelymichelle) or in the Uniquely Michelle Sewing Patterns Facebook Group. The Facebook group is a fun place to not only share pictures of your Uniquely Michelle creations, but to also get help and share ideas. Speaking of sharing ideas . . . please share any ideas you have for changing up the Lindsay Wristlet pattern. I have already had someone suggest another great change up for the Lindsay Wristlet (I will have to share this one later), but I am sure there are even more ideas out there! Share your ideas in the comments below or in the Uniquely Michelle Sewing Patterns Facebook Group.

Thanks for joining me during Lindsay Wristlet Week, it has been a blast!

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Adding a Cross-Body Strap to the Lindsay Wristlet - Part 2

Today is day six of Lindsay Wristlet Week! I am excited to finish sharing with you a tutorial on making a cross-body strap for the Lindsay Wristlet! Yesterday we cut out the fabric and interfacing and gathered everything we needed. We also made and added the second anchor piece for the cross-body strap to attach to. Today we will make the strap itself!

To make the cross-body strap, we need to start by sewing the two strips of fabric together. I like to do this on the bias because it makes it so that the adjustable slider can more easily go over the seam in the strap. Place one end of each strip right sides together so that they are at a right angle to each other. Draw a diagonal line across the square made by the intersection of the two strips of fabric from one corner to the opposite corner (see the photo on the left below). Make sure the two short ends of the strips are on one side of the line and the two long ends of the strips are on the other side of the line. Pin the strips together and sew on the line. Trim the seam allowance to ¼” and press the seam open. Now you have one long strip of fabric!

Next, it's time for interfacing. Following the manufacturer’s instructions, fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric, centering the interfacing down the middle of the strip of fabric and leaving 2” at each short end of the fabric strip with no interfacing. You may need to cut your interfacing strip shorter so that you have 2” of fabric without interfacing at each short end. If you don’t have one long strip of interfacing, just butt the ends together as you fuse them to the fabric. I fuse the interfacing right over the seam in the strap.

More pressing ahead! Fold both short ends of the Cross-Body Strap to the wrong side ¼” and press. Now fold the strip long raw edges wrong sides together and press. Next fold the raw edges of the long sides into the center fold that you just made and press. Give the Cross-Body Strap one more good press with all the folds in place and we are ready to sew!  Top-stitch 1/8" away from each long edge of the strap through all the layers.

Adding the hardware to a cross-body strap can seem a little daunting the first few times you do it. Start by putting one end of your strap over the center bar of the adjustable slider so that 1” of the end of the strap overlaps on the other side. Sew this strap end in place with a little square near the end of the strap going through both layers of the strap. 

Loop the other end of the strap through one of the swivel snap hooks and then bring that end back to the adjustable slider. Keeping any twists out of the strap, put the end of the strap through the adjustable slider - up one side, over the center and down the other side of the adjustable slider.

Now you just need to add the other swivel snap hook in the same way you added the adjustable slider to the first end of the strap.

Your cross-body strap is now finished and ready to clip onto your Lindsay Wristlet! I love that the Lindsay Wristlet can still be used as a wristlet, but now can be used as a cross-body bag too!

Don't forget the SALE that is going on all week! You can get 15% off all Uniquely Michelle patterns by entering the coupon code LINDSAYWEEK during checkout in my Website Shop or in the Uniquely Michelle Etsy Shop. You can also purchase patterns from the Uniquely Michelle Craftsy Pattern Shop where I have reduced the prices to reflect the 15% off. The sale runs through this Sunday, October 23rd at 10:00pm (MDT).

Please share pictures of your Lindsay Wristlets and any other Uniquely Michelle creations you make on Instagram (#UniquelyMichelle) and on the Uniquely Michelle Sewing Patterns FB group! I love seeing everyone's creations! 

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Adding a Cross-Body Strap to the Lindsay Wristlet - Part 1

Welcome to day five of Lindsay Wristlet Week! Today I have the first of a two-part tutorial on how to add a cross-body strap to the Lindsay Wristlet. Having a cross-body strap is a nice way to make this cute little bag easy to carry completely hands-free. I have found my Lindsay Wristlet perfect to take to school events, sporting events and when I just need the necessities when I am out and about. Adding a cross-body strap makes it so that I don’t have to worry about keeping track of a small bag and I can still clap, cheer or shop! The following tutorial will give you a cross-body strap that can adjust from an approximate length of 31” to an approximate length of 60”.  If you don't yet have the pattern for the Lindsay Wristlet, see the links at the end of this post!

Here is what you will need (above and beyond what you need to make the Lindsay Wristlet*):

1/8 yard exterior fabric*

1/8 yard 20” wide fusible woven mid-weight interfacing (Shapeflex 101)*

1 - ½” D-ring

2 - ½” swivel snap hook

1 – ½” adjustable slider

*You probably have enough exterior fabric and SF101 to make the cross-body strap if you get the amount of fabric called for in the pattern!

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We will start by cutting the fabric and interfacing.

From the exterior fabric cut:

Width of the fabric x 2” & 25” x 2” These will be the Cross-Body Strap

3” x 2”  The Second Anchor Piece

From the SF101 cut:

1” x 50” (this can be pieced together as you iron it to the strap fabric, it doesn’t need to be one long strip)

Before you finish sewing up your Lindsay Wristlet, you will want to make the second anchor piece. All you need to do is make two anchor pieces instead of just one by following the directions in the pattern. There is one change I would make though, I would omit the interfacing on the anchor pieces. The interfacing makes the anchor pieces more stiff, which is fine for a wristlet but when you attach a cross-body strap, you want the anchor pieces to flex easily so that the bag hangs well. Easy enough, you get to skip the step of adding interfacing to the anchor pieces – woo hoo!

When adding the second anchor pieces, just clip/pin it to the opposite side of the front piece from where the first anchor piece is placed. Then just sew it in place in the same way you are instructed to sew the first one in place in the pattern.

Now that we have everything cut and we have made the necessary adjustments to the Lindsay Wristlet, we are ready to make a cross-body strap . . . but we will break for now. Tomorrow we will make the cross-body strap! 

Don't forget the SALE that is going on all week! You can get 15% off all Uniquely Michelle patterns by entering the coupon code LINDSAYWEEK during checkout in my Website Shop or in the Uniquely Michelle Etsy Shop. You can also purchase patterns from the Uniquely Michelle Bluprint Pattern Shop where I have reduced the prices to reflect the 15% off. The sale ends this Sunday at 10:00pm (MDT).

Please share pictures of your Lindsay Wristlets and any other Uniquely Michelle creations you make on Instagram (#UniquelyMichelle) and on the Uniquely Michelle Sewing Patterns FB group! I love seeing everyone's creations! 

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Adding An Exterior Slip Pocket to the Lindsay Wristlet

As Lindsay Wristlet Week continues, Kristina of Restitch is back today to explain how she adds an external slip pocket to the Lindsay Wristlet. I love her slightly unconventional, but very easy and awesome way of doing this and I think you will love it too! You can read more about Kristina in yesterday's blog post, but I want to give you the chance to see her beautiful work again today by going to her website, liking her Facebook page, and following her on Instagram!

And now here is Kristina . . .

Hi everyone, it's Kristina again! Today I am going to teach you how to add a slip pocket to the outside with a fun little trick!

Ya’ll this will seriously blow your mind and you’ll use it ALL the time because it looks that good! I’m going to show you how to add an exterior slip pocket with a cute trim band at the top. It’ll look like you stitched that baby on with much precision and it’ll honestly up your game on bag making! Here’s what I’m talking about:

See that orange and white polka-dot band? That’s what we are going to make!

Start off by calculating how tall you want the slip pocket to be. In most cases, you want the pocket to only take up about 75% to 80% of the side of the bag. If you do it too low, things will fall out and if you do it too high then it’ll interfere with the zipper on the top opening. In this case, my pocket was going to be 8” x 4” completed.

Here we go:

--Cut out two pieces: one of the exterior fabric and one of the lining fabric. They should both measure 8” x 4.5” - With right sides facing each other, sew one of the long side together with a ¼” seam allowance.

--Sew down the other long side with the same seam allowance. It should now look like this:

-Turn it right side out and press down your seams. Here is where it gets fun! Right side facing up, take and roll your seam allowance towards your body. So that the fabric on the underside is now showing at the top of the pocket. Like this:

Are you seeing it?!

Decide how much of a band you want on the top of your pocket and adjust accordingly. Once you’ve figured that out, give it a good press. It should look something like this:

Huzzah! Aren’t we so fancy!!

Here are a few suggestions about this pocket: I topstitch everything. I think it looks more professional and clean if you have a nice row of fat top stiches to keep everything in place. I just top stitch about a ¼ inch in with a nice long stitch. 

Another thing you can do is add some sort of closure. I like snaps! But you could also use Velcro or something similar. THIS is the step you’ll have to add the closure and is the only time you’’ll be able to do this! Line up your pocket with the main body piece and mark where you want you closure to be. 

-Clip/pin your exterior pocket to the exterior Main Body C. Make sure to line up your edges and make sure the band looks straight. Stitch around the pocket piece at a 1/8” seam allowance. We want to just hold it in place during assembly.

And there you have it! Assemble the rest of the bag as per the instructions!

You can use this trick on almost any sort of slip pocket and it is such a nice little touch. Here is the finished product!!

I hope I have given you some great ideas on how to make this awesome bag even better!

Thank you Michelle for having me!! I truly enjoyed sharing this with y’all!!

Thank you Kristina! It has been great learning from such a talented bag maker!

Over the next two days, I will share how you can add a cross-body strap to the Lindsay Wristlet!

Today is the last day to enter the giveaway - I will draw names at 7:00pm (MDT) for three lucky winners to receive a Lindsay Wristlet pattern! Details on the giveaway and the Uniquely Michelle sale are in Tuesday's blog post!

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Enlarging the Lindsay Wristlet

I am so excited to have two guest posts, one today and one tomorrow, from the talented Kristina of  Restitch. Kristina makes and sells beautiful custom handmade bags, purses and wallets. She has made several Lindsay Wristlets and she has made some alterations to a few of them as well. I asked Kristina if she would write a blog post (or two) for me for Lindsay Wristlet Week and she agreed - I was so excited! I know you will love her tutorials explaining how she has changed up the Lindsay Wristlet some and I know you will also love her fun, southern charm that comes through in her writing. To see more of Kristina's work (her stock is low right now because her creations have a tendency to get bought up really fast) you can go to her website, like her Facebook page, and follow her on Instagram! 

And now here is Kristina . . .

Hello everyone!

I am tickled pink that Michelle has graciously asked me to do a couple of guest blog posts for Lindsay Wristlet week describing how to enlarge a pattern and how to make a neat little slip pocket on the outside of the Lindsay Wristlet!

My name is Kristina and I am the owner of Restitch.  I’m newer to the bag making world but I’ve been sewing a long time. I opened my little bag making shop about 8 months ago and haven’t looked back since! I stumbled upon this amazing pattern of Michelle’s totally by accident! I had bought a little zipper pouch about 2 years ago for my purse from a handmade seller. I decided to get online one day and see if I could find it again since I had worn it out. Lo-and-behold there was Michelle’s pattern for the Lindsay Wristlet! That was exactly what I was looking for and I’ve been making these great little bags ever since!

Today I’m going to teach you how to enlarge the Lindsay Wristlet!

Here is an example of an enlargement of the Lindsay Wristlet. The one on the left is enlarged by 20% (essentially adding 1.5 inches to the final measurements. The final dimensions are about 6 x 8 inches). The one on the right is at the original pattern dimensions. You can really make it as big as you want and perfect for your needs!

Here’s how you do it:

-Take your original dimensions and decide how much larger you want the final piece to be.

-We’ll use 8 inches as the original measurement (see picture below).

-Take your original measurement and multiply that by the percentage larger you want it to be. In this case 25% or .025 (always add a decimal point and a 0 in front of your percentage number). The results would be 2 inches!

Now, you might want to figure out what percentage it would be if you merely added 1 inch to all dimensions. Easy peasy! Simply divide A by B, then take that number and move the decimal place two spaces to the right. That's your percentage! 

Wasn’t that so much easier than you thought? Now just go thru your measurements line by line and calculate the new measurements! Remember to calculate the new lengths for your zippers too!

Or..you can Google a percentage calculator. BUT I’m hoping you’re not the latter and actually want to calculate it yourself! No? That’s ok :)

Thanks Kristina!!! Tomorrow Kristina shares how she adds an exterior slip pocket to the Lindsay Wristlet - her technique for doing this is awesome!

Remember to enter the giveaway! Details on the giveaway and the Uniquely Michelle sale are in yesterday's blog post!

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Adding a Feature Fabric Panel to the Lindsay Wristlet

It's Lindsay Wristlet Week! This will be a fun week to get inspired to not only make a Lindsay Wristlet, but also to change things up a bit along the way. This is the first tutorial of the week giving you an idea of how you can alter the Lindsay Wristlet in a fun way. Other than tutorials, you can also look forward to a giveaway and a sale during Lindsay Wristlet Week, but first let's talk about one way to change things up a little with the Lindsay Wristlet!

Have you ever had just a little bit of a fabric but you still want to use it for a bag? That is what happened to me when I wanted to make a Lindsay Wristlet using an out of print Tula Pink fabric I have called Raccoon. It is a perfect feature fabric, but I only have a little bit and I didn’t want to use my entire little bit on one project. Fortunately I also have quite a bit of the Pixel Dot fabric that coordinates with the Raccoon fabric. I decided I could combine the two to make a fabulous Lindsay Wristlet featuring a single raccoon on the front without using all of my precious fabric. By the way, I looked to see if anyone is still selling the Raccoon Tula Pink fabric - I found it on Etsy for just under $25 for a FAT QUARTER! There is a reason I try to use the little bit I have sparingly!

To feature the Raccoon fabric on my Lindsay Wristlet without using very much of it, I divided the front pieces of wristlet into three parts. A center panel that is larger – the perfect size for a single raccoon, and two side panels that are smaller. Usually when making a Lindsay Wristlet, you use one exterior fabric for the front pieces, the back, the wrist strap, the anchor piece and the interior single card pocket. The only place I used the Raccoon fabric was the middle panel on the front and also the single card pocket on the interior – not much Raccoon fabric needed by doing it this way!

There is a raccoon on the interior too - the single card pocket!

It may seem like there is a lot of math involved to figure out exactly how to divide the front into three pieces while remembering to add seam allowances, but once you know how to do it, it’s not that difficult. I could give you exact dimensions for the way I divided my front pieces, but that may not work for the fabric that you are trying to feature, so instead I made up a worksheet for you to use.  Using the worksheet, you can divide any square or rectangular piece on any bag pattern into three vertical panels where the two side panels are the same size. The worksheet is designed to make it so that you can determine how wide you want your middle panel to be when finished. That way you can make it just the right size to show off a particular part of a design on a favorite fabric, or you can just make it the size that fits a scrap of fabric you want to use. You can download and print the worksheet here: Three Vertical Panels Worksheet

This is a picture of the worksheet, but you download it and print it by clicking on the link above this picture.

Once you have the fabric pieces cut, just sew them together using the given seam allowance in the pattern and then press the seam allowances toward the outside edges.

All sewn together and top-stitched!

I like to add a pretty top-stitch 1/8" from the seam on each of the outer panel pieces.

Here is a close-up of my pink top-stitching.

Once it is top-stitched, you can add the interfacing just as you would if it were a single piece of fabric.

Interfacing added and ready to continue with the pattern instructions!

That's it - you can continue making your Lindsay Wristlet following the pattern!

If you are familiar with the Lindsay Wristlet, you may notice that this one has something extra to it. More on this "something extra" later this week!

If you don't have the Lindsay Wristlet Pattern yet, you can purchase it here on my website in the "shop" section. It is also available in my Etsy shop and on Bluprint. During Lindsay Wristlet Week you can get 15% off any of my patterns by using the coupon code LINDSAYWEEK during checkout on my website shop or my Etsy shop. On Craftsy I have already reduced the prices. The sale will run through Sunday, October 23rd at 10:00pm (MST).

To join in the fun, enter the giveaway and share your beautiful Lindsay Wristlet (or other Uniquely Michelle) creations, please follow Uniquely Michelle on Instagram, like the Uniquely Michelle Facebook Page, and join the Uniquely Michelle Sewing Patterns Facebook Group! Also sign up below for the Uniquely Michelle Newsletter to hear about the latest happenings at Uniquely Michelle! I would love to see how you feature special fabrics or use up scraps by making a Lindsay Wristlet using this method. 

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