Purses!

Two of my favorite gifts that I gave for the holidays this year went to two of my closest friends.  Early on in the holiday-sewing season I had already decided I wanted to make purses.  Now, I've made a couple of purses for myself in the past but was never happy with them, and of late I have basically stopped carrying any purse at all.

Fortunately the internet is full of fun inspiration for bags and purses of all different shapes and sizes.

purse + inspiration =?= purspiration?? lol

The fabric for the first purse really became my inspiration for the whole undertaking.  I had it for about a month before I had time to cut into it but by the time I did I knew it was the perfect look and feel for this new endeavor. I had a clear idea in my mind what I wanted to do with it so, contrary to conventional thinking in sewing these days, I didn't make a pattern, I just started cutting...

After cutting out the main parts of the bag proper I hand-stitched some cording into a small strip of the fabric to create a piped edge.

The lining  of the fabric is left over from another gift (which I hope to share with you soon). I was thrilled to have enough of it to line the purse as I think the dark green is the perfect compliment to the purple and black.

I also made preparations for an inside pocket that I hoped would be large enough for a cellphone.

Long strips to serve as support and a shoulder strap.

Attaching the pleated body to the yoke took a little bit of finessing.

And here is the finished purse:

With a nice little pocket inside and a magnetic closure.

 

I was so happy with how it turned out and how low-stress it was to make I dove right in to purse #2.  I decided to poof this one out at the bottom a bit more and change the strap a little.  And, in fact, the construction on the second one went so quickly that i never even stopped to take construction pics. Sorry!

finished purse #2

I originally chose the fabric to go with her family's gifts which had originally had the intention of being superhero-themed (more on that next time!), but when I had this one done I couldn't bear to add anything to it. I love the texture of the fabric and the nice clean look of the black and red together (both lining and topstitching are black).

I was happy that they both seemed to like their new purses.  I'm also happy that I decided to try out the magnetic clasps (super easy to install!). I'm thinking I might even make a couple more. I just need to keep my eyes open for the right fabric. ^_^

 

That's all for today. Hope your week starts out nicely!