Purse Diary: Nighttime Sewing Marathon #1


"When it's time to go... you don't sew," my husband intones to me when we're getting ready for a trip. Since we were going on vacation right after a conference, I knew I had to get my purse made ahead of time: no sewing marathon the night before we left! So I worked late into the night several nights BEFORE we left. :) I'm sorry I haven't had time to post these pictures till now!

First I took some purses that I had bought for .75 apiece at the thrift store and looked at them. I hate making all the small compartments with zippers, yet I need my purse to have them. So to save time, I decided to gut an existing purse. I decided that the one on the right would do nicely.



So I took scissors and cut the lining out of the purse. A little tricky, but I did it!


Here's the lining! It had three compartments and I decided I liked the size and shape.


So I put it on some scrap upholstery material I had, and "wrapped" it to make a bag.



Here's the bag: it's basically a rectangle folded in half with the sides sewn. I put the lining inside it, and then filled it with the contents of my purse, to make sure everything would fit and that it was big enough. Do you see the corners sticking out at the base? My next step was to fold those corners inside and sew them down, so that the purse had a box shape, like a grocery bag. I'll post some more tomorrow.

Comments

Kristyn Hall said…
What a great idea! I have a purse that has great insides but the outside is begging for a makeover. Very clever! :o)
8:46 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Clothing Organization part 3: Detachment and Appreciation

Image
The first part of organization is ineviably, paring down. And that brings with it the sometimes heartbreaking exercise of detaching yourself from things you once loved. (Yes, loved in the lower, materialistic sense, but nevertheless, loved.) So, in my effort to cut down my wardrobe, I gathered all my clothes from off-season storage and the cranies of the laundry basket and heaped them on the bed. I did the same with all my accessories: purses, scarves, shoes, and jewelry. Then the winnowing began: ruthlessly purging the unfit: clothing that was stained or getting straggly, clothes that really didn't fit me except in my fantasies, clothes that I never got around to wearing, and so on. Then I further winnowed out the remaining spring and summer clothes (farewell blue and green, till summer when we meet again!) as well any clothes that won't fit my third-trimester-pregnant figure. Also excised were maternity clothes from the last baby that were just too worn or out of style. I con
Read more

What I do with Old Scapulars

Image
A problem peculiar to serious Catholics ... what do you DO with old scapulars? When the strings tear apart and the images of our Lady start hanging -- you can't just throw them out, you have to burn them or bury them. I suspect most moms of large families have a little pile in the corner of their top bureau drawer of these little patches of cloth embroidered with Christ and Our Lady. Well, here's what I started doing with them: sewing them on the backs of my boys' overalls. This allows me to combine my hatred of name brand dressing ("What? You mean I pay you to advertise YOUR product?") with a desire for covert evangelism. See, the scapulars LOOK like those ubiquitous OshKosh tags at first glance -- but then you look again... Also, I don't mind having the Blessed Mother and our Lord watching my boys' backs in an extra special way. :) For non-Catholics: a scapular is two scraps of wool cloth with an image of the Blessed Mother on it worn front and back ove
Read more