Porg Purse - Star Wars

PORG: the definition of cuteness in Star Wars 'The Last Jedi.'

A porg is a cross between a pug, a puffin, and a seal. It is super curious, has big adorable wide eyes, and did you know a baby porg is called a porglet!? WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE!?

All of this (and more!) inspired me to create this little, loveable purse.

• Pattern from this Instructable, or create your own
• 1/3 Yard Dark brown furry (or feathery) fabric
• 1/6 Yard Light brown or orange furry (or feathery) fabric
• 1/3 Yard White furry (or feathery) fabric
• 3/8 Yard Lining fabric (preferably 100% cotton, but the only Star Wars fabric I liked--Rey & BB8--was fleece)
• Super small amount of 1-sided Fusible Flex Foam (1/4" thick)
• Dark brown (or black) all-purpose matching thread
• Light brown or orange all-purpose matching thread
• White all-purpose thread
• Black Embroidery Floss
• 2 - Large googly eyes
• Pack of 4 - Large extra strength magnets (same size as eyes)
• 2 - Gold D-Rings
• 1 - 60" Gold chain
• White Gloss Acrylic paint
• Black Gloss Acrylic paint
• Gold Metallic Acrylic paint
• White paper (for designing a pattern)
• Super Glue (I used Gorilla Super Glue)
• OPTIONAL: 5-7" Zipper (I didn't use this)

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Sewing machine
• Universal sewing machine needle (80/12)
• Fabric Scissors
• Regular Scissors
• Fabric Marker
• Embroidery Needles
• Pins or binder clips
• Pen or Pencil
• Measuring tape or ruler
• Straight edge (such as a ruler or book)
• Weights (such as heavy books or actual hand weights)
• Fine tip paint brushes
• Needle-nose pliers
• Seam Ripper (for when you mess up)
• OPTIONAL: Blow dryer (to set the acrylic paint faster)
• OPTIONAL: Cutting mat

I used these pictures to guide me as I designed this purse.

Feel free to use them as you work on your purse (or bag) too!

Use the inspiration photo to design a basic paper pattern of what you want your finished purse to look like (or you can use the included pattern I created, if you prefer). The purse's size is dependent on the eye-to-head ratio of the porg. Too big and the eyes will be too small for the head. Too small and you can't fit even a phone in the purse. So it was a little trial and error getting it just right.

Also, be sure to color it the basic way you want it to be so you know exactly where each fabric will go.

NOTE: The pattern I created is 3 separate pages. I have included it here for you as PDF (for A4 size printer paper) and as JPG (if you prefer to print it out that way).

Take your two googly eyes and paint them entirely in black acrylic paint. You will need 2-3 coats.

After each coat, use a hair dryer on low heat to set the paint extremely quickly (within a minute). This is optional, but it makes this process go way faster!

Paint the rim of each eye with metallic gold acrylic paint. You will need 2-3 coats as well.

I wanted the eyes to show the absolute adorableness of this porg, so I knew I needed to add white highlights on the eyes. These were deemed the cutest!

Cut out all your pattern pieces for your purse shell, lining, and foam piece. Be sure to add 1/2" seam allowance to each piece.

NOTE: To cut the foam piece, make it only as big as the pattern piece (not adding seam allowance) that way it will sit inside of the seams when you sew the purse shell together.

Here are the machine settings I used for this project:

• I used only a straight stitch (#6) on my machine
• Sewing fabric to fabric: set tension to 2.5
• Sewing fur to fur: 2.5
• Sewing all three furs: 2 to 2.5
• Sewing fur to foam: 4
• Sewing light brown fur to white fur (because my light brown fur was more like suede than fur): 1.5
• Sew all seams at a 1/2" seam

These are the settings that worked for my machine with the specific fabrics I used, but PLEASE test your machine settings on each of your fabrics BEFORE sewing the actual project.

I started out making an actual fillable (like a stuffed animal) snout for the nose, but then realized the fabrics overlapping were already thick enough to add dimension and I didn't need all of that. So for your project, I would recommend just doing the front snout piece and the side pieces.

Here's how:

Cut out the front snout piece and 4 of the side pieces (2 for the right, and 2 for the left) for the little mustache looking sides of the snout on the porg.

Sew the two right pieces (a front and back piece) RIGHT sides together, leaving the bottom open. Then, repeat this for the two left pieces. Turn them both right sides out and straight stitch the bottoms closed. Sew the long straight side of each moustache piece to each side of the snout RIGHT sides together so it leaves a nice seam on each side.

Using your inspiration picture as a guide, embroider the nostrils and mouth with black embroidery floss. To do this, I chose a simple split stitch. NOTE: I didn't use an embroidery hoop for this (I just held it in my hands), but you can use one if you prefer.

TO SPLIT STITCH: From the underside of the fabric, pull your threaded embroidery needle up to start a regular straight stitch. Make your straight stitch in the direction of the design, poking the needle back down through the fabric to the wrong side of the fabric. When you come back up to start the next straight stitch, simply come up through the middle of the previous straight stitch, and then complete the stitch as normal. With each new stitch, come up through the middle of the previous stitch before continuing with the stitch. At the end of the design, poke your needle back down to the underside of the fabric, and knot it off on the underside.

I decided to sew on each piece of the face by laying the pieces in their places on the RIGHT side of the backing fabric, so that the WRONG side of the top fabric is touching the RIGHT side of the back fabric, and then I stitched them directly on (no seams). This was easiest for me, but if you prefer to add them in as seams, you will need to figure out exactly how to make that all happen. :)

Sew on the snout/mouth piece (with white thread) to the bottom of the backing piece leaving a 1/2" space between the bottom of the snout/mouth piece and the bottom of the backing piece. This will give you seam allowance when sewing the final purse shell together.

NOTE: Even though there are no seams on these next few pieces, you will still sew them on with 1/2" spacing (as you do when sewing seams). This will ensure the fabrics don't tear away from each other after being sewn.

Take the light brown/orange eye fabric and sew it on with matching thread, like you did with the snout/mouth piece.

NOTE: I ended up curving the bottom of this piece (via cutting it with scissors) before sewing it down. That gave it more of an organic feeling.

Take the white cutout piece, and using the pattern layout, cut out the eye holes. Place the magnets inside the holes and super glue them down where the eyes would go. Place heavy weights on top of the magnets and wait about 10 minutes for it to begin to set. This time may vary depending on the exact glue you use.

After the glue is set, hand sew on the white eye piece to the light brown/orange piece. NOTE: I sewed around each eye twice and around the edges of the white fabric piece twice to get a good hold.

This isn't shown in this step, but I decided to paint the magnets the same way I painted the googly eyes. That way, when the flap of the purse is up, the face still looks the same underneath.

Always be sure to use the super glue in a well ventilated area!

Open the end piece of the chain with needle-nose pliers. Put this open end around a D-ring and close it back up with pliers.

Drape the chain over yourself, and position it where you would want it to go (cross-body or over the shoulder, etc). Shorten the chain to the desired length (my length was 48") by opening the chain link up (like you did the end piece) where you want to remove chain from, then close it around the second D-ring to form a complete chain strap for the purse.

Not shown: Cut 2- 3" x 1/2" strips of dark brown fur fabric. Fold these over the flat ends of each D-ring and sew the bottom of each strip to itself. These will allow the strap to be secured into the purse later. Additionally, hand sew (or use your zipper foot on your machine) as close to or around the flat side of the D-ring to the fur strip so the D-ring doesn't move around when wearing the purse.

The first picture shows the pieces you should have for you lining.

Sew the lining together by first sewing the bottom piece to the front and back pieces. Then sew the side panels on to the front, back, and bottom pieces. Always face RIGHT sides together when sewing any seam.

LEAVE THE TOP OF THE LINING OPEN.

Double check that the corners and all seams are hole-free.

Now that you've perfected the basic idea of sewing the bag together (via the lining you just sewed), transfer those same skills to sewing together your purse's shell.

The only difference is BEFORE you start sewing the shell, add the little piece of foam to the WRONG side of the bottom piece. Only sew ONE line down the middle of the foam to start (so you can fold the foam away from the seams when you sew the front and back pieces to the bottom piece. THEN, sew a line down each side of the foam after you have sewn the front and back pieces on.

I didn't think to do this at the time, but it will make your life so much easier! Leave the TOP of the "head" open for flipping the bag and for adding the flap in a future step.

Lastly, at the top middles of each side, sew in the D-ring strips to the WRONG side of each side. The lining will cover up this addition later. NOTE: Be sure to sew it multiple times in multiple places (such as a top and bottom line) OR sew a boxed "X".

Turn the lining RIGHT side out, and the purse shell WRONG side out.

Stuff the purse shell into the lining.

Fold the lining and dark brown fabric inward to create a smooth hem, and then pin and sew around the top with thread matching the OUTER fabric (in my case, dark brown/black thread). Use the same 1/2" seam allowance as you have for the entire bag.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT SEW THE PART OF THE TOP OPENING YOU LEFT FOR THE BACK FLAP. LEAVE THIS OPEN SO YOU CAN STILL ADD THE FLAP BETWEEN THE LINING AND THE OUTER FABRIC.

Repeat the exact design that you used for the face pieces of the purse shell, except attach a full piece of white fabric (no hole cutouts) and use the altered flap backing piece instead of the head piece.

Sew the flap lining piece to the face flap you just made, leaving the bottom open.

Glue on the remaining two magnets (matching the magnet placement on the purse body) to the WRONG side of the dark brown fabric. Place weights on top and allow it to set 10 minutes.

Flip the entire flap piece RIGHT SIDE out, and push the bottom of the flap into the gap in the top of the "head" piece (which is now the opening of the bag). Straight stitch all three (the lining of the purse, the flap piece, and the dark brown fabric) together, folding the top of the lining and dark brown fabric inward so it leaves a smooth hem (with no raw edges sticking out) when complete.

Finally, glue on the googly eyes that you painted to the front of the bag (over where the magnets are underneath), place weights on top, and let the glue set 10 minutes.

Woohoo! Your porg purse is done!

Admire your cuddly little friend. Take it with you wherever you go!

Sound off with your porg creations in the comments below...