How to Add Rivets to Your Handmade Handbags

When I discovered rivets, I instantly fell in love.  Sewing handles for my handbags has never been very enjoyable for me, so the addition of rivets has made the experience a little less stressful.  I always feel like those little rectangles and x's that I make on my bags are so messy.  Rivets eliminates the need for all that stitching over thick material.

Here is the project (Concealed Carry Purse) I finished recently where I added rivets to the shoulder straps.  Interested?  Just read through the tutorial below to see how easy adding rivets can be.

First, you need to gather your materials...

MATERIALS:

I have found Etsy.com to be a great place to find a lot of my bag hardware and tools.  Just type in whatever you are looking for in the 'search box' and I'm sure you'll have some luck.

LET'S GET STARTED:

First, sew a straight stitch just under the location of where you want your rivets to go.  This is a reinforcement stitch.  Then, use your marking pen to mark where you want your rivets to sit.

Next, grab your anvil, the punching tool and your hammer.  I always use this heavy hammer, but if you notice in the first picture, I had my pink hammer.  I just found it and was excited to use it for this project.  Funny thing though, it wasn't heavy enough to hammer the rivet together!  So, be sure to grab a heavy hammer for this project.  

Lay your fabric over the anvil, making sure the anvil is flat side up.  Then, position your hole punch on your mark.  Give the hole punch a few taps.  If it is a thick fabric, you'll have to hammer it hard.  Don't be afraid of it, just hammer until you feel you have gone all the way through.  The fabric will spit out the side of the punch.  That's usually how I know I've made it through.

This is what it will look like after you have punched your holes.  Next, you will want to grab your fray check and add some to the holes so the edges won't fray.  Once it is dry, you can move on to the next step.

Grab the rivet that has the long post on it.  I'm guessing this is the 'post' rivet.  Makes sense to me.

This is what it will look like on the other side.

Now, position the cap onto the rivet post and push on to secure.  It will go on partially, just enough to stay in place for a moment.

At this point you need to grab you anvil again, but this time you will be using the side with the indentation.  Place your rivet over the anvil, letting the rivet rest in the indentation.

Grab the rivet setting tool and place it over the rivet.

Tap the end of the rivet setting tool with the hammer a few times and it will be secure.

Now, doesn't that look nice?  Go give it a try and let me know how it goes.  

Now that you have the rivets down, let's move on to adding eyelets/grommets!  

Thanks for stopping by!

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