How to Sew a Lined Coin Purse

A few weeks ago, I purchased a metal purse clasp on a whim. I had never made a coin purse in this style before (I’m more of a zipper pouch gal), but I figured why not dive in and see how it would go. The construction is similar to making a lined zipper pouch with the added benefit of no zipper to install (yay!), but the added headache of handsewing the finicky frame (boo!).

Let’s dive right in!

Supplies You’ll Need

lining fabric

exterior fabric

batting, fleece, interfacing, or some other fabric to add shape to your purse

sewing machine, thread, pins, etc

hand sewing needle

strong thread in a coordinating colour (I used button thread)

metal sew-in purse clasp frame (it will have holes for sewing on the outside of the frame)

There are many purse frames available on the market, which is what makes this project a little tricky to write about. Mine is a rectangular frame, measuring 6.25″ from hinge to hinge. Since there is so much of a variance, you’ll need to create your own pattern. Don’t be alarmed: it’s easy to make one for any sized frame!

Creating Your Pattern Template

Place your purse frame on a piece of paper and trace closely around the outer edge, stopping when you get to the hinges. Don’t trace around the snap clasp or around the handle loops (if yours has these). Set aside the purse frame.
Draw a second line 0.25″ outside your first line. This will be your seam allowance.
Draw a horizontal line from hinge to hinge.
Find the centre of your horizontal line and draw a vertical line 4.25″ towards the bottom of your paper. (Feel free to adjust this measurement if you’d like a shorter purse or a taller purse!)
Draw another horizontal line, 9″ in length at the bottom of your paper, centering it under the vertical line. (Again, feel free to adjust if you’d like to make a fuller or less full change area.)
Draw an angled line from your hinge points to the bottom corners of the base of the purse. You should end up with a template similar to the one below:

Cut this template out around the perimeter. We’ll be using this template as cutting guides for our fabric.

Prepping The Fabric

Using your new template, cut out 2 from each of the following materials:
- your lining fabric
- your exterior fabric
- your interfacing/batting/fleece – I personally used quilt batting because I have tons on hand leftover from quilting projects. If you prefer a fusible interfacing product so it is less apt to move around, go for it! For the purposes of this tutorial, I will refer to it is batting for the remainder of the tutorial.

Machine Sewing Your Purse

All seam allowances will be 0.25″ unless otherwise specified.

Start by layering your first batting layer, one exterior fabric (face up), one exterior fabric (face down), and your second batting layer. Sew from one hinge point, down to the base of the purse, then back up to the other hinge point. Set aside.
Take your lining fabrics and layer them right sides together. Similar to your previous step, sew from the hinge around the base of the purse, except you will need to leave a 2-3″ gap in the base of the lining to turn your project inside out later.
OPTIONAL: Do you want to have a flat bottomed base? If so, you’ll want to sew a line across the corners of your base on both the lining and the exterior pouches you’ve sewn.
- Take your lining pouch (right sides still together) and pinch the fabric layers apart. Flatten your fabric pouch so that the seams are now on the top and the bottom. Make sure that your fabric looks even on both sides, then sew a line across the approximately an inch from the point. The farther from the point, the boxier the bottom will be. Flip it right side out to check and see if you like it. If you are satisfied, cut off the excess fabric to reduce bulk.
- Repeat for your exterior fabric, keeping the distance of the stitch line the same as your lining fabric so everything fits together nicely.
You now have two pouches, one lining pouch and one exterior pouch. Keep your exterior pouch inside out, but reverse your lining so that it’s right side out (you should still have a hole in the base of the lining).
Take your lining pouch and stuff it inside the exterior pouch, nesting the two bases into each other. Carefully pin the two pairs of lining/exterior flaps together as pictured below, then sew each pair together. Take extra care when sewing close to where the two flaps meet; sew as close as you can the apex without sewing down the other flap.
My favourite part of any lined purse or pouch – flipping it right side out! Pull the exterior of your purse out through that lining hole you left earlier during step 2:
Does everything look normal? If so, go ahead and close up the hole in the lining.

Attaching the Metal Frame

Sewing the pouch is relatively easy, but attaching the metal frame can be a bit tricky. The main problem is that the metal is very slippery so holding the fabric into the frame can be annoying. I used Wonderclips to help hold it in place, but even so, I was constantly checking to make sure that it wasn’t coming out.

Since I used batting to help my purse hold its shape, my layers were quite thick, compounding the slipping problem. To help flatten the edges, I ironed my layers, then sewed a line of top-stitching right at the edge of the areas that would be sewn under the frame.

How to Sew a Coin Purse - Lined construction with a Snap Clasp Frame — Top Layer: ironed but not top-stitched – it’s quite thick and hard to fit into the metal purse frame. Bottom Layer: ironed and top-stitched – it’s a lot thinner in comparison and slides right into place in the metal purse frame.

For me, the hardest and most timing-consuming part of this project was attaching the frame. It took me approximately 45 minutes to hand sew the frame into place. There are only sewing holes on the front of the frame, so you need to hide your stitches beneath the metal frame in the inside. To do this, start from the inside. Start by inserting your needle at an angle, entering from the back and exiting at the front of your work through the metal pin holes. It takes practice to get this angle right in a way that your stitches don’t show. Move in and out along each hole, double checking your own on both sides as you go to make sure you don’t have any extraneous loops hanging out anywhere. When you get to the end of one side, hide your knot under the metal frame.