Create-a-purse

In November I decided to make M a new purse. I had shopped and hadn't found anything that I thought she'd like. I ended up designing the purse myself using ideas from things I liked in RTW (is it really "ready to wear" when it's a purse?) and some tips from u-handbag.com. I took M to the quilt store to pick out some fabrics that she liked. Wouldn't let her know what they were for. I even "waited" until Christmas instead of making the purse for her birthday to throw her off the scent. LOL. This is the final product.



Front - I drew the lines on my pattern and then copied them to the sew-in interfacing that I was using. I essentially "paper pieced" the fabrics onto the interfacing rather than cutting them out individually and sewing them together. Much easier.


Back - the batik fabric is actually a pocket. The brown is piping along the pocket edge. If I were to do it over, I would put piping on the front side too but it looks fine without it.

You can't see it but I used a gold magnetic clasp to hold the purse openings together. It works very well.

I think she likes it. I made sure to make it big enough that she can still fit a book in it like she does with her current purse. Forgot to check if she can fit a knitting project in there. LOL.