Saki is a Japanese Knot Bag with a twist: it has gusset, lining and the straps are uniquely designed to be both straight forward to sew and for an awesome and comfortable result!
This is a tutorial for beginner sewers on how to use at best the Pattern designed by B’etha Bags.
You can purchase it on Etsy, or here on bethabags.com
It is a fun project to make beautiful gifts or to enrich your handbag collection, and it’s also a great way to use up fabric scraps or to give a new life to a garment you loved, that still brings great fabric.
Objective Zero Waste.
With the same pattern you can create an elegant and unique handbag, or a project bag / knitting bag.
What you need:
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A sewing machine
Most of us have a sewing machine at home. In case you are looking to buy one, I suggest either a second hand one or a basic sewing machine like the Brother XM2701, a lightwave machine with a discrete number of stitches for less than 90$.
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Sewing scissors
It is very important that you keep one pair of good scissors to uniquely cut fabric. To start with Singer offers a set of 3 sewing scissors, perfect for beginners sewing bees.
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Pins
In order to best cut fabric, make sure you have a good number of metallic pins with glass head.
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Sewing thread
If you are a starter you might want to get a sewing thread kit with basic colours you will most likely use. It is worth investing in good quality thread as there is nothing more nerve wrecking than working with a bad quality thread. Trust me!
Guterman is an example of high quality sewing thread. -
Cotton fabric
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A printer
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A4 paper
Now that you have the checklist of useful tools, let’s dig into making Saki.
✂️ Download and open the pattern.
✂️ Set your printer on A4 and to print on one page only, at least for the actual pattern pages (from page 11 to page 15).
✂️ Tape the pages together as per instructions and cut around the lines to you get your usable pattern.
✂️ Place and pin the pattern on the fabrics of your choice and cut:
- External fabric:
- 2 of the body
- 2 of the long handle
- 2 of the short handle
- Lining fabric:
- 2 of the body lining fabric
- 2 of the long handle
- 2 of the short handle
- Interfacing:
- 2 of the body
- 2 of the long handle
- 2 of the short handle
✂️ Build the body first, as per pattern instructions steps 5-6-7-8
✂️ Build the lining, as per pattern instructions steps 9-10-11
✂️ Build the straps, as per pattern instructions from steps 12 to step 15
✂️ Pull everything together, As per pattern instructions from step 16 to step 22
✂️ Turn it around and finish the lining, as per pattern instructions from step 23 to step 26
✂️ Final press and finishing top-stitching
Et voilà 🙂
I hope you enjoy making this simple but functional wrist bag.