Dealing with all the trims and bulk - Tutorial

The biggest challenge, as I see it, with the BoHo bags is dealing with the bulk at seams... bulk of the crazy quilting and the bulk of the trims. And if, like me, you want to use the richness of tapestry and decor fabrics, the challenge is even greater...

So I knew immediately I didn't want to add the trims to the seams as I sewed them. And I even didn't want to add them one at a time on top of each other...  If I stacked them directly on top of each of as I went it would be about 3/4" thick...  I needed to "feather" them out. So here is how I solved the problem for me....

First I selected the fringes I wanted to use and laid them out in the order I wanted to stack them..  .I cut a piece of ribbon or bias strip a little longer that than I needed to trim a pocket, flap or edge.   At the top of my choices of fringes is a piece of grosgrain ribbon 1 3/8" wide. 

Then I sewed the first fringe (the long black chainette) along the bottom edge of the ribbon.

The I added the taupe cotton fringe to the ribbon.... slightly higher than the top of the black chainette fringe.

Next came the heavy (and the bulkiest) bullion trim...again just a tad higher than the taupe fringe.

Finally I added the tasseled fringe.  You can see at the arrow that it is just a tad higher than the bullion fringe..

Now you can pick up the ribbon and attach it where you want on your bag...  Your fringes are all perfectly aligned and the bulk is at a minimum.  Once attached you  can add a layer of decorative braid (see arrow) to cover the ribbon or bias.

And you know I really love you because when I was not happy with my assembly pictures.... I TOOK MY BAG APART to get better pictures and then put it back together.  I'll put them up next.  Susie is doing her assembly this weekend and I'll add her pictures.  DH and I are playing also in a bridge tournament this weekend and don't you know I'll flaunt my bag..