Peggy Sagers: I have always compared sewing to jigsaw puzzles.

Today we have a fun show of details that can be added to your sewing projects.

Using fur, feathers, and more, we'll show you some simple and not-so-simple ideas of saving lots off high-end items; then you can decide how much detail to add to your sewing items and make your own choices of faux or real, complex or simple.

When we are sewing, we get to decide whether our jigsaw puzzles will be 100 pieces or 1,000 pieces all today on "Fit 2 Stitch."

♪♪♪ CC by Aberdeen Captioning 1-800-688-6621 www.abercap.com male announcer: "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by Kai Scissors, Reliable Corporation, Plano Sewing Center, Elliott Berman Textiles, Benno's Buttons, and Clutch Nails.

Peggy: There are so many reasons I sew, but some of those reasons are just simply to save money; and there is no one who's going to save us more money today than Cindy Vance, our guest today.

She is going to save us so much and be creative as well.

Cindy, I'm so grateful you're on the show today.

This is just going to be fun from beginning to end.

Cindy Vance: Yes, it will.

Peggy: You have just done all kinds of work, and you have so many ideas.

Cindy: So many, and this is just scratching the surface.

Peggy: Well, I noticed we just kept growing more and more projects as we worked on this because there were so many ideas.

So where do we start?

Let's start.

Cindy: Start over here with making feather bracelets.

Peggy: Okay.

Cindy: So Sally LaPointe here did bracelets on this-- Peggy: Except they're sewn on.

They're actually attached.

Cindy: So how are you going to wash it?

Peggy: Good point.

You're not.

You're going to dry-clean it.

Cindy: So you can make your own out of a slap bracelet and slap it on.

These are--this is a feather boa.

Peggy: This is so cute.

Cindy: Get them online.

Peggy: Plus that you don't have to--you can just put them on any top.

Cindy: Put them on any top, any color.

So you can get them in various colors.

Peggy: Are these real?

Cindy: These are real feathers, yes.

Peggy: They're real ostrich same as these.

Cindy: Yes.

Peggy: Wow.

This is like real expensive.

Five hundred plus.

Cindy: This will be less than 20 bucks.

Peggy: Okay.

Cindy: So what I did for the black ones, I just put fabric on the backside of the slap bracelet.

Peggy: Okay.

Cindy: Inexpensive slap bracelet.

Make sure you put it on the curved side, layer it on, and sew it.

So on the white one here I started it.

You really need to have a long needle to bring it through and then just catch it underneath, come back-- Peggy: 'Cause you're going under the curves.

Cindy: You're going under the curve and just barely catching the rib off the boa.

Peggy: Oh, I see.

So there's just one stitch all along the whole thing that's holding it on?

Cindy: Right.

And it's not going anywhere because you've anchored the end--both ends, and then just do a few little stitches down the middle.

Peggy: So these slap bracelets, do they come in sizes?

Cindy: I haven't found them in sizes.

I only found them this one size package of 25.

Peggy: I know.

Like a dollar or something?

They're really, really inexpensive.

Cindy: Less than that.

Peggy: Okay.

Peggy: So you didn't just do the Sally LaPointe look, you went to other-- Cindy: Right.

I went to real fur.

This is what it started as.

Cut it--cut your back because this is wrapped around, and then I sewed two of them together right down the middle to make it wider and then just slide it on in.

Peggy: And then you didn't put fur on the backside.

Cindy: And the reason is it makes it too bulky and the slap doesn't close all the way.

Peggy: Oh, that makes sense.

Cindy: So like this one it doesn't want to close all of the way.

Peggy: Because of that fur on the inside.

Cindy: Because of the fur on the inside.

This is a thinner fur so it will slap all the way around and lock in tighter.

Peggy: This is adorable.

I mean, it really change up a look.

Cindy: Change up a look.

Put it on anything.

Peggy: And time-wise what would you say-- Cindy: Oh, ten minutes.

Peggy: Okay.

Okay.

And it doesn't matter what fabric you use under here?

Cindy: No.

Just something thin.

Peggy: But then you can remove them in your garments.

So I love this.

We took this coat and we decided that we could take a coat and just--look at that.

It just really elevates it up to another level.

I just love how that looks.

Cindy: Makes it kind of fun.

Peggy: But you can wear it that way on Monday and on Tuesday do something else.

Cindy: Put the white one on on Tuesday.

Peggy: So in some days you used--in some cases you used real and then the--is this all real?

Cindy: These are all real, yes.

Peggy: But it wouldn't make a difference.

This is a faux.

Cindy: This is a faux, and the reason I wouldn't suggest using something like this for these is because of the length of this.

It's not going to form a nice bracelet.

See how this all sticks up?

Peggy: I see.

Cindy: So you want something with a shorter hair or really long that's very flowy.

And when you do the fur, you want the nap to go along-- the long ways.

If it goes this way, this side will show, right.

It won't flow around there right.

So you want it to go around.

Peggy: It's pretty fun to snap those on.

Cindy: It is.

It's addicting.

You could sit here and play with them all day long.

Peggy: Okay.

So--but, again, it can be faux.

It's just a matter of the type of faux you're looking for.

This is a faux, but it's not the best kind.

Cindy: Right.

But yeah, you could get short faux fur.

Peggy: Very easy, fun little project.

Cindy: Very fun little project.

Peggy: Duplicate very high-end stuff.

Cindy: Right, just sew it down the middle, slide your slap bracelet in.

You're good to go.

Peggy: Okay.

All right.

All right.

So what do we have next?

Cindy: Next we decided to copy this fox collar that goes all the way around.

Now, this is sewn on.

So, again, if I want to watch--wash the coat or have it dry-cleaned, this has to get removed somehow.

Peggy: And it becomes a real problem, too.

There's only a certain number of cleaners who will even take this kind of stuff.

Cindy: Right, and then you're limited to you always have the collar on.

You can't just have a wool coat.

So this is a good example of something you could use to make a collar because it's going to hang nice.

Peggy: Sure.

That is pretty.

Cindy: And we're going to look really good with the collar.

Peggy: Except can--I have a question for you.

If you take and do that, by the time you come around won't it be going the wrong way?

Cindy: You'll--that's where you'll have to seam it back here, which is what I did when I made this real fur collar here.

It's seamed in the back so that I have the fur going down on both of them.

Peggy: So you took the nap and you split it and reversed one side.

Cindy: Well, it's two different pieces, and I sewed them together so that they're both going to go the same direction.

Peggy: Got you.

Cindy: And then I put--stuck a magnet on the back.

Peggy: This is cool, if you'll show us that.

Cindy: This black one?

Peggy: Yeah, this is really neat how you can take, again, any fur or fabric that you like really and make a collar out of it.

How did you do your collar pattern?

Cindy: I just free-motioned it.

So what I did-- Peggy: Now, this is real.

Cindy: This is the real hide, yes, that they've pieced together.

This is a rabbit.

Peggy: Okay, and it was pieced together originally.

Cindy: Yes.

It was all these pieces.

So I did one quarter of a pattern.

So I traced it out with chalk on the back, rolled it over here, traced it out, traced out four of them, and then carefully cut from the backside all the way around.

Peggy: So you didn't even have to--you didn't feel like you even had to finish the back of this?

Cindy: I didn't because I'm rolling it.

So when I roll it around, you're not even going to see it.

Peggy: I got you.

Cindy: And, again, I put these strong magnets on the backside.

Peggy: These magnets are amazing.

Like they're really, really strong.

And so how did you attach the magnets actually on here?

Cindy: With a double-sided tape on the back of them.

Now you can also use--they hold.

It's not going anywhere.

Peggy: Whoa.

I would think that the strength of the magnet would pull it off the-- Cindy: It's not going to because it's on the other side of the fur.

So that lessens it just a little bit.

Peggy: I see.

Cindy: So you could use hot glue.

You could use E6000.

You could use any glue, or you can just use double-sided.

Peggy: So when I look at this, it's almost like a big snap band but just not a snap band.

Cindy: Right, and the beauty part is you can put that collar on and here's your matching cuffs.

Peggy: You made cuffs to match?

That's adorable.

These are expensive.

All this stuff is very pricey.

Cindy: Yeah.

Peggy: Especially as you go to the real versus the faux.

I mean, you can do either one.

Cindy: When you do this one, you can do the same thing.

You open it up and then just lay your pattern on here.

Draw what you want on one side, the other side, and then connect them.

Peggy: To make sure the nap is going the same way.

Cindy: So it's going the same way.

And you really don't have to finish this side if you don't want to.

Peggy: Especially this.

This has such a pretty backside.

Yeah, you'd almost want that pretty backside, I would think, to show.

Cindy: It's an option.

You can always do that if you want to or leave it plain.

Peggy: Well, that's the thing.

We're going to keep saying this over and over.

There's just so many choices that you can decide.

It's just all up to you, and sometimes that drives people crazy.

Like, "No, that's too many choices.

Let's--tell me what to do."

Yeah.

Cindy: Cut it, put some magnets on.

You're good to go.

Peggy: Yeah, so we started in, then we decided we had little that-- we had little cuffs and we had little collars and we got crazy into handbags.

Cindy: Got crazy into handbags.

Peggy: We got crazy into handbags, and it's easy to get crazy into handbags.

Peggy: Is that fair?

Cindy: It is.

Cindy: It is because there's so many mediums that you can sew with.

You can sew with cork.

You can sew with vinyl.

You can sew with faux leather, real leather, imitation, crocodile, alligator, whatever you want, sherpa.

Yeah.

Sky's the limit.

Peggy: All right.

So let's show them some.

And I also noticed it seemed like bags fell into kind of two categories.

It seemed like there was a really slouch bag and then there was more of a formed bag and-- Cindy: Or little wallets.

Peggy: Sure.

Peggy: Would you say one is easier than another?

This is the bag we started with, this original bag couple thousand dollars because it's real sherpa and that gets pricey.

Cindy: But this isn't any more difficult than a structured bag because it's just-- Peggy: To you.

Cindy: Because it's two pieces just lapped over and sewn.

Peggy: Sure.

Here, you have a sample of that.

Here.

Cindy: I do right there.

Yeah.

So when I made it, it's just two pieces you lap over and you're going to sew down the middle here.

Peggy: And I want you to show this because I--show them how you did this.

Cindy: Yeah, this was--this is the collar piece.

So I just started laying my piece--my paper on and drawing my pieces and marking them.

That's going to be my front.

This is the side front.

Labeling them.

Then I went and got faux sherpa, laid these pieces out, traced them.

This is the faux sherpa.

Peggy: So you took a--and you took the bag design-- I'm going to grab this bag.

You took actually the bag design right off the original.

Cindy: I did.

Copied it down to-- Peggy: So this bag was several thousand.

How much was this bag?

This is a faux sherpa.

Cindy: Faux sherpa.

Well, I recycled a tablecloth for my trim.

Peggy: You've listened to all of the shows previously, haven't you?

This was a tablecloth?

Cindy: This was a table my--covering my table, yeah.

Peggy: Okay.

Cindy: And then--so I just looked at all the details on this bag right down to--I liked how they did the handles so I copied the handles.

I liked how they did this chain strap to connect it in the middle, so I put the chain strap in there.

They even did their label, so I put in my hand label.

You know, just everything.

So you can do as much as you want like I did this full copy, or if you want to just do a simple one out of jeans.

Peggy: Yeah, that's adorable.

Cindy: Same front, same back.

Peggy: Totally different use for the bag.

Totally different place you're going to go.

But your handles are adorable, how you did those.

Cindy: These are the back pockets.

Just cut the back pocket off and sewed it on.

Peggy: The name of the game would really just be have fun.

Cindy: Have fun.

Peggy: Yeah, and, again, you know, you could take this bag in so many places where you wouldn't want to take this bag.

Cindy: Right, because truthfully this bag is kind of heavy because it's real.

This is very light 'cause it's faux.

Peggy: So I want to talk about this hardware 'cause this hardware is always--when we talk about handbags, the hardware has always made me nervous, intimidated me, whatever you want to call it, because I always felt like a homemade handbag looked homemade because the hardware.

So I really-- Cindy: Or lack thereof.

Yeah.

Peggy: And so I can find hard--where do I--I mean, I want a place; but I mean, I can just search for-- Cindy: You can search online for handbag hardware, purse hardware.

Peggy: Handbag hardware.

You don't have to be too smart to get that.

Handbag hardware.

Okay.

Cindy: It can come in gold, brushed, antique, gunmetal, so-- Peggy: And I liked what you called this.

You called this-- Cindy: This is my auditioning of my hardware.

Peggy: So this is the bag you're going to make?

This is your old tablecloth?

Cindy: No.

This is actually a skin.

This is actually a leather.

This is real leather.

So if I want to decide what do I want to make, what do I want to use, do I like how the rose gold looks?

Do I want it to blend in more?

Do I like--you know, you get to decide how you want it to look.

When it came to making this, it's just an example of, your should--your straps could look like this.

Or you can use D-rings or rectangles.

Peggy: Do you think when a person starts making a handbag, again I think that's just a tremendous jump, what would you say to just give them the confidence to say, "I can do this?"

Cindy: Find a simple bag and just try it.

You don't have to-- Peggy: A pattern and everything.

There's handbag-- Cindy: There are handbag patterns.

There's free ones all over the place.

And even if you do buy a handbag pattern, they're not expensive.

They're very inexpensive.

And even the hardware itself is not expensive.

Peggy: So I want to cover other materials, but do you think it's easier to use a real or do you think it's easier to use a faux material?

Cindy: I think they're the same.

For me it was the same.

It's going to depend on-- Peggy: Yeah, let's get into all those-- Cindy: Your machine may or may not want to do it, but if you use the right needle you can probably get your machine to do it.

Peggy: So let's talk about needles.

Cindy: So needles--I found when it came to sewing this, it was easier because this wasn't very thick.

Peggy: This was a faux.

Right?

Cindy: This was faux.

If you're finding your machine is struggling, go up in a needle size.

So if you start with a 90-- Peggy: Because the shaft gets thicker.

Cindy: The shaft gets thicker.

If you sew with a leather or a jeans needle, it's going to have a sharper point and a thicker shaft because it's meant-- Peggy: So we're talking like a 90-- Cindy: Ninety or one ten or even a hundred.

Even 110.

It's what I had to use on some of my bags, was up to a 110 because you-- it's got to go through.

And so the bigger the needle-- if you break a needle, go up a needle.

And if you're concerned about going around something thick, you hand-roll it.

Peggy: I love this--we have so much fun on this table.

It's hard to get to it all.

So when we talk about all these materials, there are some clear handbags out there that are very, very pricey.

Nine, ten thousand dollars.

Cindy: Right.

For a real Chanel, but this is a faux.

Peggy: Yes.

But, again, the only place is Chanel--the difference is just right here, and it is amazing how some women will spend 4,000 and 5,000, 13,000 on a daily basis and others would never dream.

Cindy: Twenty-five, thirty bucks we're good.

Peggy: Yeah, so that's what I think is really fun about being able to select your materials and your--what you're going to trim it with and, you know, all that kind of stuff.

Cindy: Right, rose gold may not be for everybody.

You may like gold.

And so all of your bags are made with gold hardware.

That's your choice.

You're the designer.

Peggy: So let's look at these three.

I think this is a really good analogy.

Cindy: This is a real alligator.

Peggy: As in real real?

Cindy: Real real.

The handle comes off-- Peggy: As in $15,000 real?

Cindy: I couldn't even tell you because inside here it says real alligator.

Peggy: Okay.

Cindy: So we know that this is legit, but this is very expensive.

So then we can move on up to imitation alligator in that this is leather.

It's real leather, and what they did was they quilted the design like this.

So they had plain leather and they started quilting to make it look like alligator.

And it can fool some people and think, "Oh, I have an alligator bag."

Hm, no.

Peggy: And this is--this price point is at $6,000.

Yeah.

But it's a designer bag and-- Cindy: It's a designer bag.

Peggy: But you could certainly do all of the stitching.

So many, many hours.

Cindy: You could get leather like this and quilt it yourself to make it look like this bag here.

Peggy: Okay, so we're at 13 or so and now we're down to 6.

We're saving--we can buy two bags for the price of one.

Cindy: For the price of one, or for 50 bucks you can get imitation alligator.

Peggy: And this is a faux leather.

Cindy: And it's a faux leather.

Peggy: Faux leather for less than 50.

You did a hand tag to match hand tag.

Cindy: I even put the purse feet on.

This one has feet.

Put feet on that one.

Peggy: Put feet on the bottom?

Cindy: This one doesn't have feet.

Peggy: You know, it's interesting that I like your feet better than the feet on this expensive bag.

Can you do a foot?

You got some stuff there.

But, you know, this is really interesting because as I go through this bag all of these choices were really yours.

I know you were comparing off this one.

Cindy: Right, but I could have decided I wanted silver hardware instead of gold hardware.

Peggy: And you only chose gold because this bag had gold.

Cindy: Because it had gold.

Peggy: You were trying to imitate this.

And you even put a little clip in here that's magnetic because that has one, and then it's lined.

Cindy: And it's lined.

Peggy: How hard is that?

Cindy: It's very easy.

Peggy: Hold on.

I want to see the purse foot first, but I want you to talk about, if you will, for just a minute these bags are all unstructured so one layer in and out, really no lining.

All right, so let's do a purse foot, but then I want to come back to that lining if you don't mind 'cause that intimidates me a little bit.

Cindy: So with a purse foot you're going to mark where you want your foot to be.

So say you want it inch in, inch-- so this is going to be my mark.

You get your hole punch, come in here.

Peggy: And you set that.

You turn that because that--you just got the size you wanted the foot to be.

Cindy: Right, because I knew how big my foot was.

Peggy: If it's a little bigger, a little smaller, it won't make that much difference.

Cindy: No.

You just need it to be able to get your--the foot in there.

So I've got the foot in here, spread it a little bit.

Peggy: Could I do that with my scissors just if I didn't have a fancy tool?

Cindy: You could.

You could use an all.

Any sharp thing will send it on in there.

You just put the backing on, bend it over.

Peggy: It's that easy.

Cindy: It's that easy.

Peggy: These look so professional to me.

Cindy: So it's part of the bottom as you're making the bag.

Peggy: Sure.

And even if there's four--we noticed some bags had four on the bottom and some had five.

So you could just decide-- Cindy: It's designer choice.

The longer it is, the more you might want one in the middle.

Peggy: Okay.

So can we talk linings?

Cindy: We can talk linings.

Peggy: Okay.

And I love these handles.

I love these handles.

Like I can't believe you found such pretty hardware.

Cindy: For less than $8.

Peggy: I know.

It's just incredible.

It's really incredible.

So this is such a pretty bag, and I love your hand.

Anyway, go ahead.

Sorry.

Cindy: The lining is going to look like this.

You have an opening in the bottom.

You leave it open.

Peggy: So, again, on this particular case you just followed a pattern?

Cindy: I just followed a pattern.

I found one that looked similar.

Peggy: Okay.

So you started with something you wanted shape-wise, size-wise and then just bought a pattern.

Okay.

And followed the pattern.

And they even told you to put this here and put this here and the pockets?

Cindy: And the pockets and everything.

So it made it very simple.

So this bag was basically--it's two rectangles sewn together, same thing as the lining.

Peggy: It just looks so much more harder than that.

Cindy: It's two rectangles sewn together.

Peggy: But your lining choices are beautiful.

Cindy: So then you just take your two rectangles once they're sewn together and you're going to do what they call box the bottom.

Peggy: Oh, I see.

Cindy: So you're going to sew across here, and that's what makes this nice structured corner.

Peggy: And then do you put anything in the bottom of this?

Cindy: Yes, it's just like this one here.

It's a hard base that you put in the bottom.

It's just an interface-- Peggy: --tell you that and all the information.

Cindy: The pattern tells you what kind to get, and then you put this.

This is the base.

So then you're going to take your lining and you're going to slide it in, sew around the top; and then you're going to pull the bag out through this, turn it, stitch that on the top.

Peggy: And that's when you start putting the hardware on and deciding what hardware you want.

Cindy: Right.

What hardware you want.

Peggy: So those are hard decisions, I think, just because there's so many options.

Cindy: There's so many--but, you know, I look at it as--well, rose gold may not--I may not want rose gold.

It's-- Peggy: So I could pick this up at any time, and you can see where you closed up the lining here.

Oh, this is just so cool.

You make me want to go make a bag.

I could do this as opposed to paying $6,000 for-- Cindy: As opposed to paying $6,000.

Peggy: Because I could do real and do it myself.

You know, you can decide on those levels.

I just think it's what's so exciting.

Cindy: These handles here, like, I could have chosen silver.

So it was just a matter of punching your holes, lining it up in the holes.

This goes on the back and then screw it in, and that's it.

That's all there is to-- Peggy: It just looks so rich.

Cindy: --putting that on.

Peggy: Look at this.

Cindy: Oh, these are the rivets.

Peggy: Yeah, these are really cool, and they're very pretty.

You know how they wrap around like that.

Cindy: Want me to set a rivet?

Peggy: Yeah.

Can you do that?

Cindy: Because people get intimidated by rivets.

So you're just going to punch a hole-- Peggy: Get the stuff out 'cause otherwise the rivet won't fit in.

Cindy: Right.

Put your rivet in.

These are called double-cap rivets.

So they look the same on both sides.

Peggy: Oh, that's what makes that handle look so nice over here.

Cindy: So then when you push them together, they're not going anywhere right now.

So then to set it, I have a little anvil.

Put a little thing on top here.

Now it's set.

That rivet is not coming off.

Peggy: It's just so much fun.

This is why I sew.

I love all these choices and selections that you have.

Cindy: Way too many choices.

Thank you for having me.

This was a lot of fun.

Peggy: Thank you, Cindy.

What you wear is how you present yourself to the world.

Especially today when human contacts are so quick, fashion is an instant language.

The designers who are behind the scenes know it is their job to communicate universally and effectively.

I hope that this series, "Achieving our Masters of Arts in Fashion," has motivated you to delve into the details that elevate our personal fashion from one to ten.

I love fashion, and here are some great quotes.

"Fashion should be a form of escapism and not a form of imprisonment."

"Fashion is like eating.

You shouldn't stick to the same menu."

What did Coco Chanel say about fashion?

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only.

Fashion is in the sky, in the street.

Fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening."

From all of us in the studio, behind the cameras, our graphic designers, and our supportive families, thank you for watching.

And a big thanks to the Texas Fashion Collection from the University of North Texas for enabling us to explore some of fashion's greatest minds and achievements.

Happy sewing from "Fit 2 Stitch."

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ announcer: "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by Kai Scissors, Reliable Corporation, Plano Sewing Center, Elliott Berman Textiles, Benno's Buttons, and Clutch Nails.

To order a four-DVD set of "Fit 2 Stitch" series 12, please visit our website at fit2stitch.com.