Recycled Purse Bottom - Battling the Great Saggy Bottom

I've learned a lot from this one purse adventure.  I probably won't even use the purse that I made.  It may become a give away or gift.  However, when I made this purse, I made the mistake of using quilt batting.  I added stabilizer later but was unable to get it as stiff as I wanted.  My latest problem was when I put anything in the purse, it had a great sag in the bottom.  So I searched the Internet and read that someone once used floor tile on the bottom of the purse to stiffen it but there were no instructions.  So, I tested out a sample. 

Saggy Bottom when item added to bag

I measured the bottom of my purse roughly into a rectangle.  Measured that out on an extra floor tile I had and cut the rectangle floor tile.  Then I rounded the corners free hand.  No perfection here.  Tried it out in the bottom of the purse and made adjustment cuts where needed.  I figured to hide it, it needed a fabric sleeve to match the bottom of the purse.

Traced cut out tile on fabric back

I used scrap fabric I had and roughly traced the size of the tile bottom onto the backside of the fabric.  I folded on piece of fabric down about 1/2 inch above the trace line and sewed it down when I sewed around three sides of the template.  The other piece of fabric I left long.  When I trimmed I left about 3" on this extended piece.  

Sewed down one side of excess fabric

My goal was to make a rough envelop flap.  I turned the envelope fabric right sides out.  Now, I folded the long flap into a triangle and sewed a 1/4 from the sides.  Trimmed and added a Velcro dot.  Now I can remove the tile and wash the purse bottom envelope when needed. 

Created rough envelope

Here is my inside of the purse (lining was still just a little too big) and the before and after sag.

Inside with added purse bottom

No more saggy bottom when items added inside purse.

I'd love to hear your suggestions for how you add stiffness to a purse as well!

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~