Alright, alright, enough about the business side of Florine Leather & Style for now… let’s get to the real business. Let’s learn a new technique! In the previous post about the Travel Clutch, I mentioned that I wanted to learn a new technique to get those awesome straight and sharp corners you often see on briefcases and business bags. I still can’t find the English translation for it besides, sharp gusset, but I will just use the Dutch version of it. Let’s learn about the “keersoufflé”.
1. Design the keersoufflé
First, you have to determine how deep/shallow you want your bottom to be. I choose to make the little pieces at the bottom of the gusset 5 mm in width and just to be sure (also a first time for me) almost 1 cm long. I can cut them to the desired length in the end.
2. Gusset bottom assemble
The second step is to assemble the bottom and the gussets in the little middle part. In my case, it was just 4 to 5 stitched wide but this will depend on the width of your bag. The result can be seen above.
3. Aline everything
Since this won’t be a Turned-edge you can place the ‘furry’ sides of the leather towards each other. But due to the previous few stitches, your corner will turn upwards. This is actually what we want since it needs to be a sharp corner. Check out the next step to find out how to sew this and why it is called a keersoufflé in Dutch!
4. Turn and stitch
The translation of the word “keersoufflé” would be partly Dutch, partly French. If I would translate it, it says “turn – breath” but if I translate it more freely, it could say “turn the little piece” since that’s what we will be doing in the next step. Turn the little piece into the corner, and stitch it all up. Make sure you have a stitch over the cut between the bottom and the gusset to prevent any holes. All that’s left is to cut off the extended piece of the keersoufflé.
Crazy how easy it actually is, but before you can use it in your designs you have to know about the turning part… Well, this will open a lot of new doors and opportunities in my designs. Because this is not only pretty for briefcases but would also look great on some modern sharp-angled bags. Let’s get back to the drawing table soon but first… let’s continue with the travel bag!
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