Making embroidered and quilted bags on the XP1 with Angie Lawrence

One of the things I really enjoy is making bags of all shapes and sizes – from make-up bags to clutches to shoulder bags to handbags, I love them all.

Up to now I have contented myself with using commercial patterns or buying 'in the hoop' designs – which I didn’t always like as I found them fiddly and wasteful.

I had long admired ready-embroidered fabric in the shops, but it can be expensive. I was confident that with this fabulous machine I could reproduce something similar – or even better – and it would be exactly what I wanted.

I began by embroidering a piece of fabric in the usual way – adding the design and free-motion quilting around it before taking it out of the hoop, cutting out the shape I needed and assembling on the sewing side.

Here’s an example of a piece of piece of embroidered fabric cut from a larger piece I created using one of the in-built quilt fills. It worked but, again, a tiny bit wasteful if you are just cutting a shape from it.

So I thought – hang on! There’s a scanner on this wonderful machine! I took the pattern piece which I had printed out and – masking the instructions, measurements and so forth – scanned in the outline.  It took just a minute or so and I then opened it in Design Centre.

There I selected the double outline stitch and chose a colour. Next, I selected the particular quilt fill that I wanted – on the XP1 there are lots of quilting fills, including flowers, clamshells, and traditional stippling among many, many others. I selected the one I wanted, adjusted the direction of the stitching, spacing and size, and pressed apply. For this bag I used a pretty design which looked like underwater fronds/leaves, nicely suiting the feel I wanted for the bag.








Here's the design on the screen of the Luminaire, ready to be stitched. Once your piece is embroidered, remove it from the frame and cut around it, remembering to leave a seam allowance – I use half an inch.

On to the next piece! I used the same quilting fill as before, but this time added a beautiful fish design that comes with the XP1 Luminaire. Cut it out the same way – remembering your seam allowance!

Now I had my front and rear panels and was ready to cut the rest of the bag, Clematis by Blue Calla Designs. This included the base pieces and the lining. after this, it was over to the sewing side to construct the bag – all made very easy with the XP1 and Innov-is XV! People tend to get ‘wowed’ by the embroidery side of these machines – which they rightly should – yet often overlook the sewing capabilities which are outstanding, trustworthy and very user friendly.


And – voila – the finished clutch bag!

But wait – there’s more!

I wanted to make a particular shape of makeup bag as a gift for a friend. Something which was broad at the bottom but straightish at the sides – and quilted of course.

So I drew up a pattern to my desired measurements and scanned in the outline as above. Tip: it helps if you make your outline nice and bold by using a Sharpie or similar. Then, as before, I added the quilt fill I wanted – this time using a simple diamond fill as I wanted to showcase the fabric – and proceeded as above.


And here is the finished bag!

The best thing about all this is that you can, of course, save the shapes you have designed in the machine for use in other bags. You can easily and proportionately reduce and enlarge the size and add any embroidery design you want. The possibilities – as they say – are endless!

Until next time, when I will be talking a bit about the sewing side of the Brother XP1 and Luminaire and how it can help you do perfect cross hatch quilting using the inbuilt projector – enjoy your machine!

Angie Lawrence
Cinnamon Crafts
Isle of Man
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