Pretty little purses

Once again, in my journeys on the Purl Soho site, I spotted an absolutely gorgeous Japanese handbag. But there was no way in tarnation that I was spending $36 for the frame in their shop. So I moseyed on over to etsy, and along with the bobble frames I used for my coin purses, I found iDENTical frames for...drum roll.....$5.80. See? I am a freakin' economic genius. You gotta spend money to save money, as my BFF Samantha says ;)

Did I NEED another purse? Well, that is an entirely different question in the economics department....

Anyways, back to the crafty stuff. The frames I bought came with no instructions, so I popped back to the Purl Soho tutorial and just eyeballed a pattern, based on what they showed there. It's a wrinkly bag, so I figured exact dimensions were not critical, and that turned out to be true. Sew sew sew, and here you have it:

Aren't they cute? I used some home deco weight Joel Dewberry from his Ginseng collection that I la-la-love, happened to find on clearance at a local fabric shop, and have been waiting for the right project to put to use. I think they are perfect here.

Now, I want you all to remain impressed with my crafty prowess and all, but I have to say- these were quite easy. And super elegant. So cute dangling over the wrist just so. I highly recommend giving these a try!

For lining, I used some sweet soft Rowan shot cotton. Made use of my labels once again.



What's that inside the bags? Well, I thought it would be nice to have a coordinating wallet that fit nicely in the bags, so I whipped up a couple of those as well, incorporating a third fabric from the same line.



This was just a pattern I made up, inspired by this clutch at Keyka Lou (though not nearly as cute), smaller in size and with a full fold over.

I used a magnet snap closure for the flap (also bought on etsy here), which was an interesting experience as when I was doing my top stitching, the magnet would stick to the metal base plate by my bobbin at the most unexpected times and make my lines all wonky. Doh! How very Me of me.


As you can see, I made 2 sets- one for me and one for Samantha, who lives in Toronto :-) I am super stoked as I am heading out to T.O. for the weekend with my hubby. He has a conference and it is our anniversary so I am tagging along (maybe some romance??? nudge wink) and while he is occupied by day, I get to hang out with Sam, who I never get to see often enough!! You can bet she and I will find equal doses of shopping, chocolate and trouble! I promise a full report when I get back!