Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Purse addiction


I saw a pattern for a clutch with handles, and I knew I had to try it. It couldn't be that difficult. I started out with a familiar material--a placemat. Placemats are nice to use because you don't have to sew a liner--it comes with one already! I also decided to use my buttonhole presser foot to make the handles.

In fact, I made the handles first, because obviously, that would be the most difficult part of the project. On the "wrong" side of the placemat--what I had decided would be my lining, I used my tape measure and fabric marker to measure out the size of my handles. I used my hand as a guide for the size, because I wanted it to fit comfortably in my hand. I drew a square on the lining side of the fabric and used my buttonhole foot to stitch the square, so I'd know where to cut the handles open, making them nice and neat. Then I pressed down the rough edges and seamed them again.

I folded the placemat in half, right sides together, and seamed up the sides, leaving a 1/4-inch seam allowance. I pinched the bottom corners and sewed a traingle on both sides to make a square bottom, the I flipped it right side out.

The finished project:

I'm actually really happy with this purse. I haven't been able to use it yet, because, well...that's for another post.

Toodles!

3 comments:

Lynn said...

We are going to have to start calling you "Josie Bradley"!!

The more you sew, the better you are getting. GREAT JOB!!

Kim Eckhardt said...

Josie, that is sew cute. lol. It looks orange. It would be a cute Clemson purse if you put a tiger paw on it. But...you're a Gamecock fan so that's probably not going to happen. I, however, am a Clemson fan. I'm just sayin'. :) Very, very cute. :)

Josie Thames said...

Thank you both! Actually, the purse is red, but you're right, if it were orange, it would look very nice if a Clemson paw were appliqued onto it.