New Purse

I finally have a finish!  We had a sewing day and Ellen helped us make this purse last Saturday.  The pattern is Candice by Lazy Girl Designs.   A friend had given me a $15 gift card for Joann's, all I had to buy was the typewriter fabric and the pellon foam.  Everything else was in my stash.  So I spent $3 plus $2 for the big zipper at my LQS, Dogwood Quilting, and $2 for grey thread.

Ellen, on the left, was our teacher helping us make our purses.  Pat, on the right, made the pretty purse below.  I can't wait to see the finished purse tonight at quilt guild.  She used a heavy home deco fabric.

I didn't finish mine.  The inside of mine is pink.  I made my first inside pocket.

 I forgot to put interfacing on the linings, so my zipper was wonky.  Ellen is my neighbor and she made me redo the lining on Monday, LOL.

We used Pellon fusible foam to make it stiff.  I needed heavy interfacing for my pockets only to find out what I  had in my stash was not fusible.  I pulled out the glue stick!

I went to Ellen's house Wednesday morning and Tuesday morning to finish my purse.  When I left yesterday, I had just a few things left, like top stitching the edge and adding the finished handles.  I had to put my machine at the edge fo the table to do the top stitching.

I wish I had made the pockets lie flat.  I thought I would give them room for more stuff, but it just made too much bulk inside.  It's a learning process.

Here is the back of my purse.

This purse is the perfect size for me to carry my agenda and when I get one, my tablet.  Making it a lot easier to carry business supplies when I do a Pampered Chef party for one of my hosts.  I am really happy with it!  My husband even said "that looks like a professional purse!"  The front is a pocket!

Have you made this pattern?  I know Ellen said that she had changed some of the directions because she has made a lot of these purses for all of her relatives.

Missy

Bible Tote Bag

 I finally finished my Bible Tote bag!  I started it back in April before we moved.  You can see it here.  I started writing down the directions, but lost them in the move.

 For some reason, when I sewed the inside, I must have cut it wrong because it is smaller then the outside of the bag which makes the sides wonky when filled.  But that's okay, I still really like it.  I can keep my notebook for ladies Bible study, spiral notebook for prayer requests, and my hymnal for church and of course my Bible and Bible highlighters all in my bag!

I love this print material I found, it is so much fun!

I have to share this picture my husband took of Cupcake and me, she loves sitting on the back of the chair.

 All of the cats like the back of the chair and as soon as I stand up, one of them sits in the chair.  I love the look on Oreo's face!

Missy

Glasses Case and a winner

Wow, it is gonna storm here! My Muffin is scared of storms and hides in the bedroom when it thunders.  He's a real big scaredy cat!  I made a glasses case to match my purse, back before I had to go to AR.  I have prescription sun glasses, one of the best investments ever! (I said that with a valley girl ever so be sure to read it that way!)  (I guess you young girls don't know what I'm talking about when I say valley girl though!)  I used a coupon a couple of years ago to buy 2 glasses plus exam for $100 and then paid the extra $20 for tint on one of them.  I've been using the ugly case it came with, don't know why when it took me less than an hour to make the case!

I had some material left over from an apron I had made and it was curved which is why I ended up with a sock looking case.  I used a thick felt for the middle and fleece for the inside.  I wanted as much protection as possible for my glasses and the fleece keeps them clean.  I cut the material 7 inches by 7 1/2 inches, but it is almost too small once I got all the sewing down, but you don't want it too big or glasses might fall out. If your glasses are small like mine, I would go with 7 1/2 by 71/2 to make it a tad wider.   Mine fit perfectly.  I cut all three pieces the exact same size,

  then trimmed the middle down a little to help with bulkiness.  I pinned the middle (pink felt) to the inside (green fleece)

 I sewed an x in the middle to keep the felt from moving around.  By sewing it to the inside fleece, you don't see the x, but make your x bigger, my fleece moves a little when taking the glasses in and out of the case.

 Next, put the two pieces right sides together (the green fleece facing the right side of the outside material, cherries)  Sew the edges leaving a hole at the bottom to be able to flip the material out.  The bottom is the curved edge, but remember mine is only curved because I'm using leftovers.

 If you want trim, like my green ruffle ribbon, sew it on now about 1/2 an inch down.  Be sure to sew the hole closed.

Fold the case in half (cherries facing) and sew the bottom (curve) and side stopping at the top (straight side).  When cutting your material give yourself an extra 1 - 1 1/2 inches to allow for both seam allowances.

Flip it out and your case is done!  I smile every time I look it!  I would have liked a rectangle better than a sock, but hey, I was saving material!

It fits perfect in the other side pocket in my purse too!

And for the winner of the book giveaway the River Rose is Rebecca!

"pianogal said...

I have read several of Gilbert Morris' books. We taught at the same college for a few years. He is a great writer! If I had a steamer, I would name it Johnnie Belle. "
I sent you an email, be sure to email me back!

I hope ya'll like giveaways, I'll be having another in the next month or so for another book.

Missy

Summer Ruffle Purse

 I have been seeing these ruffle purses around for for a couple of years, even have a pattern for one. I look at tutorials and patterns, then do my own thing(because I have trouble reading patterns).   I have been wanting to make one, but just never did. One thing I really wanted was a pocket on the outside for a bottle of water.  I live in TX and it gets pretty hot, so I like to have my water handy.  I needed to figure out a way to put a pocket on the side without the ruffles being in the way.  This was not easy to do, I still messed up, but this is what I ended up doing.  I also wanted a draw string for the top since I will be traveling this summer, I didn't want a pick pocket!

 I made 8 ruffles, four for each side.  You can choose 1, 2 or 4 different fabrics.   I wanted to use these fabrics below.  I was not sure how I wanted to arrange them, but thought the pink and yellow gingham would be a lot of fun with the fruity material.  (I only used material from my stash, and since I bought the fruity material on clearance a couple of years ago and the rest was given to me, I'm sure it cost me under $5 to make).  I remembered I had the green linen and thought it would make a good base and lining for the purse.

After I started cutting the fruity material, I realized that when I folded it in half I had two different patterns, the cherries and the fruit, so I decided to just use the same material for all the ruffles.  I cut the ruffles 6 inches by 30 inches, which was the width of my fabric.  

 I could have used my ruffle foot to make the ruffles, but I wanted them to look a little more random.  In a couple of photos above you can see on the top two ruffles I made them in a tube (casing)and turned them wrong side out so the top and bottom would have finished edges, the other size ruffles were just folded in half since the top of them would not be seen.

 I cut the base of the bag and lining 15 1/2 inches by 24 inches.  I really should have cut the lining 15 inches by 23 1/2 inches for a better fit.  I used heavy interfacing cut the same size as the outside of the bag.  I used pieces that I had and sewed them together, the interfacing will give shape and stability to the bag.  I basted it onto the outside of the bag, around the edges.  It will be sewed on better when the ruffles are sewn on.

Here comes the tricky part, it took me a whole day to figure out the side pocket for my water bottle.  How to put a pocket on the side and not mess up the ruffles?  I thought if I put a flap on each side of the seam I could sew the ruffles straight across the pocket and then sew the pockets together.

Here are the pocket flaps when the bag is opened up.  I made the flaps 6 1/2 x 8 in.  I cut two pieces  and sewed them two inches from the side and 1/2 inch up from the bottom.  I actually only need one flap, I had to cut one off at the end because I messed up, and it was two big.  That's okay I sewed the other flap on the other side and made a pocket for my prescription sunglasses.  It would be easiest to make the width of the bag half the size and sew the sides  of the pockets together before sewing the sides of the bag together, or you can make one flap for each side.

I highly recommend drawing lines across the bag to make sure your ruffles are straight and evenly set a part.  I started measuring at two inches from the bottom of the pocket.  I set my lines every two inches.  Go ahead and iron down the top of the bag, this will give you a smooth finish at the top of your bag.  I ironed them down about the width of my forefinger, I guess around 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch.

I opened the bag and pinned on the ruffles starting at the bottom on each side.  You can see how I sewed across the flap and not onto the part under where the pocket will be.  Remember to sew one flap on each side of the bag instead of the way I did both on the same side(unless you cut your flaps in half), this will give you two pockets, one on each side of the bag of the bag.

After folding my ruffles they were three inches wide and had about a 1/4 inch seam when sewn on.

I sewed the last ruffle at the top of the pocket, make sure you end with the ruffle that is made from the tube.

To make the casing for the drawstring is pretty easy.  I cut the pink gingham 15 inches by 4 inches and sewed them right sides together.  After turning the casing right side out, I folded the ends in and sewed them together.  I then just sewed the top and bottom of the casing leaving the ends opened.  The casing ended up being about 13 1/2 inches long.  You want room on the sides to sew the bag together and allow room for the ties.  Make sure you have a couple of inches at the top to allow room for gathering the ties.  I wish I had allowed my top to be a little bigger.

Here is the inside of the bag after sewing everything on.  You don't have to worry about the interfacing moving!

Here are the pockets with the ruffles sewn on.

This was my mistake, I sewed the pocket the next day and totally messed it up.  If you are sewing the two flaps, do not sew the bottom of the pocket.  This is what the sides of the bag will look like before sewing together.

The correct thing to do next, (with one flap instead of two), go ahead and sew the sides of the bag together on both sides, keeping the flaps out of the way.  (can you see where I had sewn the two flaps of the pocket together first?)

Pin the bottom ruffles out of the way also.  I pinned my ruffles down before sewing the sides of the bag right sides together.  I'm not much of a pinner but I did pin the bag because there are so many varibales to watch while sewing.  (the ruffles, pocket and top of the bag lining up).  It wasn't perfect, but worked.

Next, I wanted to "box" the bottom of my purse.  I took the edge and flattened it, making sure the ruffles were not in the way.  I went up about an inch and sewed straight across.  This gave me a box look on the bottom of my purse.

To make the pocket is kind of hard the way I did it.  I cut one of the flaps off since it was so big and sewed it onto the other side of the bag.  I sewed the pocket down as for as my sewing machine would go and finished up by hand sewing along the bottom and the part of the side my machine would not reach,  If the bag had two pieces instead of one I could have left the bottom to sew last and would have been able to sew the entire pocket without any problems.  This was a learning experience for me!

I like lots of pockets!  I had cut two pieces of gingham to make pockets going across the entire length of the the lining.  I also basted interfacing onto these pockets since they were so flimsy.  I cut them 15 1/2 inches by 7 1/2 inches.  I measured three inches from the top of the bag and two inches from the bottom of the bag to determine where to put the pockets and how tall to make them.

Before sewing the long pocket on I added smaller pockets.  I had leftovers, so the pockets were not really measured.  I sewed a pocket onto teach long pocket.  I made the pocket below to0 close to the edge and sewed up a lot of it when sewing the bag together.

I had these three pieces leftover from an apron I had made and sewed the tops down to finish them, then zig-zag stitched around them instead of folding them under and stitching.  It's not like anyone would see them.

When I sewed the long pockets on, I turned them upside down and laid them across the line that was two inches up from the bottom and sewed across it.

I forgot to take a picture, but then I sewed about three lines up the pockets to make more pockets.  I left one pocket pretty wide on the yellow gingham where the pink paisley pocket is.  I am going to add a flap here, so make sure you do that now if you want a big pocket.  The pocket flops open too much.

Can you believe all of the pockets?  14 inside and two outside!

Next I worked on the ties for the handle and the drawstring.  I took three pieces of the fabric and braided them together.  I just pinned it to my skirt like I did with friendship bracelets when I was a teenager.  For the draw string I knotted one end and then ran it through the casing and knotted the other end.  For the handle I did not knot (Okay, I laughed when I typed that!) the ends because it is easier to sew without the knots.  Be sure to sew across the braids before threading through the casing or sewing on the bag.
I cut 3 strips of fabric about 37 inches long and three inches wide.  I realized for the handle that it was not wide enough, so the second handle I cut the strips wider, the wider the strips the bigger the handle (I highly recommend cutting them 4-6 inches wide for the handles), I made two handles for stability, but sewed them next to each other as if they are one handle instead.  I like the look.  You can see what I'm talking about in the bottom picture.

I sewed the lining together right sides together,  (which is correct) but turned it wrong side out (which is not correct, as you can see in the picture) so I thought I made a mistake, ripped the seams out, sewed it together wrong, only to realize I did it right the first time, ripped my seams out and resewed it!  LOL  Don't forget to box the seams of the lining also.

You are now ready to sew the handles on and sew the lining to the bag.  I put one braid on each side of the seam (I did not put them on the seam to reduce bulkiness).  Make sure the braids are not twisted.

I pinned all the way around and then sewed it together!

Stick your water bottle in your pocket and you are done!

I have plenty of room for my hand sewing also!  http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2012/05/color-question-and-traveling-kit.html

I love the fact that I can either leave the bag open to stick more stuff in, or close it with the draw string to make it smaller.  It is perfect for my vacation and all my summer activities!

How to make a ruffle:  http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-make-ruffle.html
Why I suggest the lines for the ruffles, they were crooked on my ruffle dress for my niece:  http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2012/03/easy-ruffle-dress.html
How to make casings:  http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2011/06/easy-casings.html
For more purse ideas, visit my pinterest board!  http://pinterest.com/missyshay/purses-bags-and-wallets/  If you need an invite to pinterest let me know!
I hope this tutorial made sense, if you have any questions or suggestions please share!  It took me a week to figure out how to make this purse, but I couldn't be happier with it!
Missy