Crossbody Heart Purse for Girls - For Valentine's Day or All Year Long!

This crossbody heart purse would make a fun Valentine’s Day gift for a little girl! I’ve got a free pattern you can use to make one. Sew it up from a Valentine fabric and fill it with treats to make it a special Valentine’s gift. And because hearts aren’t only for Valentine’s Day, your little girl can wear her purse all year long.

It’s the perfect size for them to carry their stuff around with them. The heart purse has just enough room for some lip gloss or hand sanitizer, or maybe some cute pens and a little notepad. Or, if she’s anything like my daughter was, a selection of very cool rocks she found at the park and just couldn’t leave behind.

The crossbody bag is easy to carry hands-free, which means less likelihood of it getting left somewhere. And the zipper makes a secure closure so her things won’t fall out of her bag.

I also made one up out of a soft floral pastel for a totally different look.

It’s a fun little sewing project you can sew up in an afternoon. Start to finish, including cutting out the pattern pieces, it took just 1 hour for me to make this little bag.

Don’t get fooled by the zipper. This is actually a pretty simple bag to put together. The bag is lined but the edges are kept raw on the inside which saves quite a few steps. And the straps are just made from 1” ribbon which also saves time.

Finished measurements are approximately 7 1/2″ wide x 8″ tall. The cross body strap is made from a 36” length of ribbon. The strap isn’t adjustable so you may want to check that length on your child to see if you need to adjust it.

How to sew the heart crossbody purse:

Materials:

Main fabric – fat quarter quilting cotton

Lining fabric – fat quarter quilting cotton

Fusible fleece- 1/4 yard

Nylon zipper at least 10 inches long (Don’t use a zipper with metal teeth!)

2 1” rectangle rings or D-rings

7/8” or 1” wide ribbon – 1 piece 36” long, 2 pieces 2” long (The long piece of ribbon will be the strap. You may want to lengthen or shorten it to better fit your child.)

Glue stick

Free pattern – Crossbody Heart Purse for Girls

Prepare the pieces

Cut out pattern pieces.

Follow manufacturer’s instructions to fuse the fleece to the backs of the main fabric.

Sew the zipper

Start by making a sandwich with your zipper and the Top Front pieces. With raw edges aligned, place the lining piece right side up, then the zipper right side up, and finally the main fabric right side down.

Your zipper will be longer than the fabric pieces. That’s okay. Just sew it in and let the extra zipper hang off the edge; we’ll trim it later.

Sew the layers together, using a zipper foot to stitch close to the zipper.

Turn right side out and press. Top stitch close to the edge.

Now to sew the Bottom Front pieces to the other side of the zipper. Place the lining right side up, then the zipper right side up, and finally the main fabric right side down, raw edges touching. Sew the layers together with the zipper foot.

Turn right side out and press. Top stitch close to the edge.

UNZIP THE ZIPPER at least half way.

Set your machine to a wide zig zag and a very short stitch length (as you would to create a satin stitch). Stitch the zig zag across the teeth of the zipper tape to sew the open ends of the zipper together, 1/4” in from edge of pouch. Sew at least 3 stitches to make sure it’s good and secure.

Repeat the satin stitch on the other (closed) end of the zipper. Now you’ve got temporary zipper stops to keep your zipper pull from coming off the end of the zipper tape.

Trim the zipper tape even with the edges of the pouch.

Add the Rectangle Rings (or D-Rings)

Thread each of the 2” lengths of ribbon through a rectangle ring (or D-ring), bringing the ends together to create a loop.

Baste the ribbon loops to the top of the purse front where marked on the pattern with a 1/4″ seam allowance, raw edges aligned and right sides together.

Assemble the heart purse

For the Top Front, Bottom Front, and Back pieces, glue baste the main fabric and lining layers together, WST. The Top Front and Bottom Front pieces are already sewn together along the zipper, but go ahead and glue baste the rest of the edges. This will help keep the layers of fabric from shifting when you assemble the pouch.

You can use a standard glue stick to glue baste – just make sure that the glue is good and dry before sewing the fabric. Ironing the fabric will dry the glue pretty quickly.

UNZIP THE ZIPPER MOST OF THE WAY. The final step in this project will have you turn the pouch right side out through this opening, so make sure it’s big enough.

Place the Back on the Front pieces, right sides together. Then, stitch all the way around with 1/2” seam allowance.

Trim seam allowance to 1/4″. Clip curves and corners. If you have pinking shears, you can use them to clip the curves. It’ll make it go faster, plus it will help control the fraying on your seam allowances.

Pay extra attention when clipping into the V at the top of the heart. You’ll need to clip right up to the stitch line (but not through it) in order to keep the fabric from bunching up there when you turn the purse right side out.

Turn the purse right side out. Press.

Sew the strap

You’re ALMOST done! The only thing left is to add the strap. Being careful not to twist the strap, thread the ends of the long piece of ribbon through the rings, overlapping to the back by roughly 1”. Stitch across the strap to secure.

NOW your crossbody heart purse is done!