Making a Retro 60s Mod Girl Bag with the Cricut Maker and Easy Press
I was so pleased with this design when I created it that I put it everywhere – well, on a clock and on a compact mirror. With a variety of different skin/hair/eye colours.
But really – when it’s scaled down, the details (especially the line on the mouth) are SO small – you’d really have to be super-dedicated or obsessed…obviously I did it (and you can too, if you want to resize the svg!) but I don’t really recommend it.
Larger-scale though…this really works! You’ll need to do some layering – I enjoy layering, but on heat-transfer vinyl it is SUPER-easy! I used a Westwood Mills tote bag in 100white cotton
You will need:
Westwood Mills 100% cotton white tote bag
Heat transfer vinyl in orange (less than an A4 sheet)
Heat transfer vinyl in cream (less than an A4 sheet)
Heat transfer vinyl in black (less than an A5 sheet)
Heat transfer vinyl in white (very small amount)
Heat transfer vinyl in green (very small amount)
Heat transfer vinyl in pink (very small amount)
Preparing the pattern:
- In Design Space, create a New Project. Upload the file (it’s called modfacetote.zip!) and unzip the format you need – in our case, it’s the svg.
- Ungroup the pieces
- Drag and drop to select the cream-coloured pieces (i.e. the face and the gap on the fringe) and then Attach them.
- Drag and drop to select the white pieces (i.e. the whites of the eyes) and then Attach them.
- Drag and drop to select the green pieces (i.e. the irises of the eyes) and then Attach them.
- Drag and drop to select the black pieces (i.e. the eyelashes, nostrils and line across the mouth) and then Attach them.
- The only pieces you haven’t grouped together are the single pieces – that is, the orange base and the pink mouth – so you don’t need to attach them. But don’t be alarmed that they don’t appear in the picture in Design Space at this stage!
Now…you’re ready to cut!
Using a weeding tool if necessary peel away the excess on all the pieces. You’ll end up with something looking like this:
Applying your pieces to the tote bag:
I’m using the Cricut Easypress. I love it (after missing the point of it at first!) but you can use whatever heat press or iron you have to hand.
Your pile of cut-out htv (as shown above!) need to be applied in the following order (regardless of what your instinct tells you!):
- The orange circle – this is the backbone of the whole piece, so ensure that it’s equidistant between the edges at both the top and bottom and the sides.
- I used the Cricut Easypress – I honestly didn’t get the point of it at first but now I LOVE it! It applies heat so evenly and consistently that it’s hard to go wrong! Anyway – now it’s time to apply the cream sections.
- Next…the pink mouth and the whites of the eyes can be applied at the same time – though I highly recommend using the black eyelashes section (which is applied LAST!) as a guide before you position things permanently with the iron or press:
Take your time, then leave just the white and pink pieces down to press (these are small, isolated pieces, so I covered them with greaseproof paper before ironing them):
4. Next came the green irises of the eyes:
5. And finally the black details on the eyes and mouth:
That’s it! Your tote bag is complete!
Want to try this file for yourself? Download it here!
