Purses

Well, I actually did it! I decided to make Christmas presents (typical), started making them (typical), and - drum roll, please - actually finished them! (so not typical)

The idea started just about two years ago when my dear husband bought me a lovely purse for Christmas at a local artisan shop. It's made of hand-woven chenilles and wools, with a few beads and a gorgeous button. I thought it would be fairly simple to repeat - only with cottons, silks, tapestries, what have you - and embellishments of course.

Once I picked out the various fabrics and decided on the embellishments for each one, it was time to get down to doing, rather than planning. Just as I had completed all the handwork and was about to start the machine stitching, a large limb broke off a tree across the street, smashing to the ground and taking the power lines with it. That was Sunday night. I had to deliver three of the purses on Monday afternoon! Thankfully we live on a main road and the tree, as well as the power lines, were across the road, so everything was fixed by Monday morning and I could begin sewing.

Here's the results! (click on the pictures to make them larger)

This one incorporates a lovely vintage lace motif that I embellished with some hand-dyed (Stef Francis I think) rayon thread. The fabric is a piece of cotton sateen hand-dyed by Judy Robertson.

This is the inside - you can see it's just a simple flap - no zippers or anything difficult.

This one uses another piece of fabric from Judy Robertson embellished with some silk fusion (silk fibers from Treenway Silk), beads, and #12 perle cotton (ArtFabrik)

This one is a piece of Japanese fabric purchased at a quilt show. It graduates from dark gray to white and is like a very soft damask with flowers woven into the fabric. The actual printed flowers (you can see the two white flowers at the bottom center) are printed throughout the strip in a single straight line. Simple embroidery and a sprinkling of seed beads on the front made this one complete.

I don't know if you can see the embellishments on this one. It's a batik fabric with some yellow/chartreuse ArtFabrik perle cotton and beads in a single leaf shape.

This one is a beautiful piece of dupioni silk that I think was intended for a wrap - there's a lovely woven design at either end - I only used one of the ends for the purse - so the design is seen at the bottom and on the back. The front is plain dupioni (as if dupioni can ever be called "plain"!) embroidered with spirals and a few sequins and beads.

These were lots of fun to make - I'm planning on making more and maybe selling them on etsy. We'll see.