Learn How to make Ankara bags- Step By Step Tutorial.

Virtually all ladies love fashion bags, no matter the numbers of fashion bags a lady have she tend to crave for more but, considering the resent growing price of fashion bags you may want to consider making yourself a fantastic one to reduce the cost. its easy and fast all you have to do is calm down and put your mind to it. 

There are two methods namely:

1. Revamping an old bag. Here, You just take the old bag and refashion it by covering it with Ankara fabric. 

2. Crafting a new bag from the scratch.

Now let us move to the first methoid and then go through the materials we will need.

Method 1 – Revamping Ankara bags

Materials and Tools: 

·          An old bag

·         Ankara fabric

·         Glue

·         Knife

·          Scissors

PROCEDURE

1. Prepare the bag

First you remove all the clamps from it. You can achieve this by using a knife.

Then if the handbag is shabby and the material cracks and peels at places, all those peeled parts need to be detached. This way the fabric will nicely be glued to the surface without any air bubbles and pimples created on it. You may use some sandpaper to even out the outward of your clutch.

Cut loose the clutch lining. Just cut the seams open, so you would be able to clip the drapery over the edge and glue it inside in between the insert and the purse material. This way your fancy-bag refashioning would look very professional with no fabric edges seen.

2. Measure the fabric

Pick your Ankara fabric and measure it against the bag. You need to figure out the size of drapery piece and how the print would go. So, sort of wrap the clutch in the material and see, where the prints should go and mark the size of the portion you need to cut.

Since it’s a clutch, you should open it and clip the fabric over the upper part and go all the way around the purse to the other side. And do not forget to leave the over-measure (around 5 cm on each side). Now you may cut out the textile.

3. Start gluing

You may use your hot glue gun or any transparent all-purpose glue suitable for fabric. Do not use instant adhesive. It would not allow you to make any cloth adjustments in the process. Ajar the bag and start gluing the cloth from the lower edge (the one you cut loose). Leave the over-measure to clip over the edge.

Smear the gum onto the face part of the bag, stick the textile. Clip the over-measure and glue it in between the clutch textile and lining. Make a nice, crisp bend, apply some more adhesive and pull the fabric so there would be no wrinkles. It has to sit nice and tight.

You would also need to cut the over-measure strips off on the sides of the fancy-bag, so that the topmost edge would nicely fit inside the purse. Now smear the adhesive to the rest of the exterior of the purse and glue the Ankara fabric.

Remember, you have cut lose all the lining of the bag. Now you roll the over-measure over the folding part of the clutch (its part with the holds fixes). Apply some glue inside and hide that over-measure edge in between the lining and the bag material.

Finally we have to attach the sides (the over-measure fabric) of the bag. You may fold or cut the lowermost portion of the over-measure, apply the gum to the clutch side and glue the fabric in.

4. Put the clamps back on

All the clamp openings are glued over with the fabric. So, you need to find them and cut open. Then you insert the clamps and fix them there.

5. Glue back the lining

The parts you have cut open can be glued back only after you insert the clamps. Apply some gum inside the bag and fasten the lining. This way all the edges of fabric would be hidden inside. The bag looks as good as new with no signs of being refurbished.

Now you know how to make pretty Ankara bags by refashioning them and covering over with fabric. But what if you want to make a new clutch from the scratch? Here are five easy steps to follow:

Materials and Tools:

·         Cardboard

·         Ankara fabric

·         Unicolor fabric

·         Hot glue gun and spray adhesive

·         Velcro

·         Decorative piece

1. Measure and cut

Define the size of your clutch. It’s up to you and it depends on how much Ankara fabric you have. Let us say the height of it would be 10 cm and 20 cm in width. Thus you need three equal pieces of cardboard of 10 by 20 cm.

It is preferable to use a firm and thin cardboard for a thinner clutch. Now you need three fabric pieces (2 unicolor and 1 Ankara). It should be 23 cm wide and 36 cm long. You place your card pieces on the material in such a way, that the first one would leave 1 cm over-measure. Then you make a gap of 2 cm and place the next one, two more cm and the last one and leave 1 cm of over-measure.

2. Glue together the clutch foundation

Use glue spray on one side of cardboard and fix it on the fabric. Do it with all three of them. Now use hot glue gun to roll over and clip the edges on all four sides. Now you have three cardboard pieces attached to fabric.

It’s your clutch foundation. Place your Ankara face down on the table, locate the foundation on the top (cardboard open side down) and outline it using a pen or a pencil (the cardboard piece is would be smaller than Ankara, because its edges are clipped). Do the same thing with the second unicolor piece.

Remove the foundation. Use hot glue gun to clip the over-measure edges of Ankara. Now you have the foundation and Ankara fabric of the same size. Place Ankara face up on the foundation (on the cardboard open side) and stick it down with the hot adhesive.

Now your foundation is almost complete. Turn it over (Ankara part down). You may see the cardboard through the unicolor fabric layer. Use your second unicolor piece to cover this side over, make it stronger and smoother with no cardboard in sight. You just glue it over the first unicolor layer. You can fold the clutch. It has to sides and no pouches yet.

3. Glue the inner parts

You can make 1 or 2 inner compartments. Just cut out 1-2 pieces of Ankara or unicolor fabric the size of the cardboard (11x21). Bend the 0.5 cm on each side, clip and glue down. You get an even rectangular.

Now you unfold the foundation and glue its three sides (leaving out the top one) on the unicolor side to the middle cardboard piece. You can also make few smaller pieces for pouches. They cab by 11x11 cm. You also clip and join the 0.5 cm on each side of the fabric. You can put the pouches on the top of the main compartment of the Ankara bag. The second compartment can be fastened to the lower cardboard piece with the low edge unglued.

4. Make clutch sides

Cut out two small Ankara pieces (6x7 cm), clip their edges (0.5 cm). There are your sides. Fold the clutch. The sides would be fastened between the middle and the lower cardboard pieces. Place one aligning it with the top edge and glue to the sides. The bottom part of cardboard would remain with no side attached. You just stick the two bottom parts together. This side would make the purse open wider for you to put or take things out.

5 Attach the clamp and Decorate

You may use a piece of Velcro as your clamp. The front of the Ankara bag can be decorated with a metal décor piece, with a bead or a fabric (or leather) flower. Use hot glue to fasten them.

These two tutorials on how to make Nigerian Ankara bags can help you to get crafty and create your own accessories. You can make as many as you wish with very little money spent on your fashion projects.