Friday, March 5, 2010

First attempt with a purse




So I finally hopped on the band wagon and found a purse pattern I really wanted to have and make. When I saw Heather Mulder Peterson's Bella Bag pattern, I knew I wanted to make it. I made the large bag from the pattern.
I used material I had purchased while I was in the Dominican Republic picking up my son from his LDS church mission. It's a fabric with embroidery already on it and I loved the colors. They didn't really have any quilting fabric, so I picked up this fabric instead. The pattern was easy to follow and would have been much easier if I had fabric that was the usual 44" wide, but this particular fabric was only about 21" wide, so I ended up having to piece the handles and make them a little bit shorter instead of having each handle cut from just one piece of fabric. I would have preferred to make the handles from the fabric used in the bottom half of the purse, but there just wasn't enough left. I used the grommets that just snap into place and I loved them. I will definitely be using them for many other projects. I used some fabric glue also in between the grommets like Heather recommended. The lining is just a blue/green plaid from my stash and I sewed 3 pockets onto it.
Can't wait to use my new purse now. I'm already looking at my stash to make another bag from this pattern.

4 comments:

Di~ said...

I love that purse! Way to go!

Nanette Merrill said...

I love the big grommets in the bag. So fabulous.

Marjorie said...

I bought a pattern that uses similar grommets...how well are they holding up over time?

Kathi Thompson said...

Marjorie, so far so good and I've been carrying some semi-heavy things in the bag. I've been so pleased with the way it looks, that I've started another one, different pattern, using the grommets.