Bowling Bag Inspired Purse

In an effort to make yet another purse that I probably don't need but that I thought would be really cool to make, I decided to try my hand at making a bowling bag inspired purse.

I wanted it to be smaller than a real bowling bag, but I don't think I sized it down quite far enough. It's a nice size and much smaller than the original pattern that I tweaked it from, but if I decide to try to resuscitate it one day I'm going to size it down a few more inches. If I would have stayed with the original pattern size it would have looked more like luggage than a purse.

I chose to use some beautiful baby blue vinyl that has a leather feel to it for the upper portion of the purse and a cream colored vinyl for the lower part and the handles. The lining is a sort of grey high pile upholstery fabric that I got on sale.

Dorothy's Purses

I recently realized that I couldn't remember ever giving my childhood neighbor Dorothy a gift for either Christmas or her birthday. I may have given her something way back when, but I felt guilty that I have been making things for other people and that I had neglected to make her anything. That being said, I decided to find out what she would like in a handmade, one of a kind purse. After basically being left to my own devices with only the requirement of several pockets and a keychain holder, I went to work searching my sizable fabric stash for some Dorothy-worthy fabric. The following purse is what I came up with.












































The large shoulder strap is actually a recycled belt and the smaller white handles are recycled yokes from the hubby's suspenders that he wore at our wedding. I thought the butterfly and floral print screamed Dorothy. She seemed to really enjoy it as well. So much so that one of her only remaining family members commissioned another purse to give to her for Christmas. I just finished it and it will be in the mail today. Here it is.

































It came out a little more Barbie than I initially intended but I think she will still enjoy it. It's a sort of french print for the main part of the bag. I found this fabulous bedazzled chiffon remnant and I just had to use it on something, so that is what is on the outer part of the exterior pockets. The interior of the pockets are lined in the same grey canvas material as the handles. The interior of the purse itself is a sort of tweed grey that I thought might help tone down the pink on the exterior. It doesn't have the plethora of pockets on the inside like her first purse but maybe she can take this special occasions like bingo so that she can carry back all of her winnings.

Motorcycle Inspired Purse

Sorry for the absence over the last few weeks. I was busy traveling 5,227 miles...and getting married. I'll post more about the big day later. Right now I wanted to share my latest purse creation with you all.

Following the idea of my motorcycle inspired vest upgrade, I thought I should have a purse to go with that vest. During our 5,000+ mile trip out west, we stopped at several Harley Davidson motorcycle dealerships to pick up poker chips in memory of our trip. While we were at these dealerships, I perused the women's clothing and accessories sections and I saw several, very expensive purses that I thought were cute in their construction, but not in their price tags. So I thought I could try to recreate the essence of these purses.

I used the same template that I used on the lace insert of my vest to create a burlesque type of orange and fishnet inset zippered pocket. Here are some closeup shots of the pocket section.

Simplicity 2911 Purse 2.0 Version

Yesterday I posted about my 1.0 version of Simplicity's purse pattern number 2911.

I wasn't entirely pleased with the location that I had chosen for the keychain holder, so I decided that I would make a second attempt at the pattern.

This time I went with a solid print material that I had gotten from Garden Ridge a while back. To spruce it up a little bit, I transferred the pattern of a sweet little bicycle and flowers onto the front of the bag and hand embroidered the pattern. I made sure to place the keychain holder a little off center so that it wouldn't interfere with the magnetic closure this time. I was also able to find a slightly larger keychain holder clasp that luckily matched the accent color of the lining fabric.

I hope that my friend likes this version of the purse as much as I liked making it for her.

Simplicity 2911 Purse 1.0 Version

A very dear friend of mine recently asked if I could make her a purse similar to one she already owned. I told her I would definitely give it a shot.

She wanted a relatively small, rectangular shaped purse with a large strap so that she could wear the purse across her body. She also wanted a key holder, an exterior pocket and a few interior pockets.

After consulting my rather substantial collection of purse patterns (thank you Jo Ann Fabric for having so many $0.99 pattern sales), I settled on Simplicity's pattern number 2911.

The hipster purse in the set of patterns seemed like it would be a perfect choice. It is almost exactly the same size as her original purse, so I thought that it would be a good starting point.

The only changes that I really had to make to the pattern was to add an additional internal pocket (the original pattern only had one internal pocket) and to add zippers to the external pocket and another zipper to one of the internal pockets. And I also added a key holder, although when I added the key holder, I centered it on the purse, which actually put it almost in the way of the magnetic closure.

I'll still offer her this purse, but I decided that I could make a better version for her. Unfortunately, you'll have to check out my next post to see my upgrade.

In the mean time, I'll let you see the finished product of my Simplicity 2911 purse. The 1.0 version anyway.

Goodwill Basket Purse Redo

So I took my mother to her local Goodwill store yesterday so that we could drop off some items and, of course, pick up more items. As I was perusing the basket section, I saw this sweet little basket purse that was desperately in need of some love. For $0.50 I had to take it home and at least try to fix it up a little.

Here's some before pics of the sad little purse.






It's difficult to see, but the elastic that was holding the basket together was pretty much shot. The plastic flower on top was one of the first things that had to go. I replaced the worn out elastic with some heavy gauge crochet thread. I wanted to add some kind of a liner to it, and I was originally going to use the cute floral fabric shown in the photos, but I saw that my mom had cut some adorable blue plaid short sleeves off of a shirt of hers and I thought that would be perfect as a liner. It was also a lot less work since all I needed to do was to stitch up the cut opening of the sleeve. The remaining opening was already hemmed and ready to be used. When I finished stitching up the cut opening of the blue material, I placed it in the basket and stitched it in place around the basket opening. I also added two small stitched through the bottom of the lining, just to secure it to the bottom of the basket. I also used some of the blue thread that I used to stitch the bottom of the lining fabric to weave around the little loop that goes around the button.

  

I think it turned out to be a pretty cute little purse. It fits my wallet, keys, and my phone, which sometimes is all I really need.

For $0.50, some thread, a recycled shirt sleeve and a little time, I think it's a pretty good investment.