There are some updates to my latest wedding projects now on the site, plus a couple more pix of the mogs doing their Quilt Inspecting duties on their page... And a new page with some bag projects.
The biggest wedding project has a tutorial on concealed zips buried in the middle of it!
Depends on whether or not you want the seam allowances to show at the mouth.
*Some* bags, I sew up the two sides and don't hem at all: I use the selvage, or leave it raw. (Such a bag is usually closed with a bit of twine tied in a clove hitch.) (But my raw-edge coin purse is closed by folding it in half.)
If I want a drawstring, I'll press the seam open before hemming, then snip one stitch to let the drawstring in. If I want two drawstrings, I'll tear a long skinny rectangle and make a bag with two side seams and a fold at the bottom. One could, of course, make a couple of buttonholes or somesuch, but undoing a few stitches of seam is easier and at least as neat.
If the bag is to be opened and closed a lot, I make a wide hem and put the drawstring between two rounds of stitching well back from the edge so that it has a ruffle around the mouth when closed. This gives me something to take hold of to open the bag.
If the bag is too small to hem conveniently after sewing it up, and if you want the inside of the hem nicely finished, hem it first, then sew it up with a french seam on the *outside* of the bag.
The last factory-made pillow case I bought was hemmed first, then the seam was overlocked.
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