Wool Purse

Several months ago my friend, DeLoris, gave me a big piece of wool fabric (3 1/2 yards of 60" wide). She apologized that there were moth holes in it which she had conscientiously marked with safety pins. I gladly accepted this lovely gift even though there is no way I could ever wear a wool garment (it makes me itch... always has). I immediately had visions of hand-dyed wool dancing in my head! I pre-washed the wool so it was ready for dying. And then it sat, patiently waiting.

Since then thoughts of what I would do with it cooked in my little-girl-head until last week when I finally got out my dye and the pre-washed wool to make some beautiful colors.

(But first sneak-peak at the purse)



I'd hoped for darker jewel-toned colors but I think that either there is a polyester content to the wool or that the dry cleaning chemicals didn't completely wash out. You can see the original color of the wool underneath the dyed fabric. It is a light beige with a darker thread herringbone pattern. I dyed 1/2 yard WOF *dark brown* then 18" squares of (starting at the top left)- golden yellow, turquoise/golden yellow mix, emerald green, turquoise, rose red, purple, and fuchsia. What I ended up with was a lovely variety of soft heather colors...



Years ago I started a wool applique block-of-the-month quilt (which is still not-so-happily-waiting) and I used some of the flowers from that as inspiration for my purse. I quickly re-discovered that my poor-arthritic thumb can only do so much hand sewing (hence the not-so-happily-waiting BOM quilt) so the hand embellishment has been done in small chunks.



It appears that I am going to have to name 2012 *THE YEAR OF THE PURSE* It is a terrible sickness but I love it.

"But It Called To Me..."

Perhaps I should be embarrassed... but, no, I'm actually a little giddy.



As I was finishing my last quilt the leftover border fabric just called out that it needed to be a purse!



I envisioned putting together some of my recent craft forays into this purse...



I'm so happy with my finished results... I just love creating something new and useful (and dang-cute to boot) with leftovers!

Purse Obsession

"Grammie, you have a new purse every time you come here!"



That's what Ashton said to me a couple of weeks ago... and she's not wrong. This one is the latest COMPLETED purse (yup, there's already another one in the works!)

I've always liked purses and I have quite a collection of them, but it really didn't get to *obsession* status until this spring!  First I saw Rebekah's flower bag when I was visiting in March, and as usual, I had all of the makings for my version of her bag before I left town. (Yeah... lots of trips to town on this one!)



I hadn't even finished that purse when I saw another purse at the UVRMC gift shop (for the bargain price of $240!).



I was obsessed with it too! But I needed to MAKE this one, as well, because there is no way I'm going to spend that much money on a HAND BAG!



This latest one I like to call my Pinterest Purse! (Bet you can't guess where I saw this one!) Again, with the *I've got to make this happy purse!*

I followed all of the links until I finally tracked down the English instructions for this crocheted bag.

There is a correction to the original instructions-  “It seems to me there’s a mistake in the English version of the pattern. I’m pretty sure there’s an extra Ch 3 in round 2. I think Round 2 should read: Ch 3, 2 dc, 2 dc through chain, Ch 3, 2 dc through chain, 3 dc, (no Ch 3 here) 2 dc through chain, Ch3, 2 dc through chain, 3 dc, 2 dc through chain, etc…”  This was an accurate correction.

I got my yarn online from KnitPicks.com. You also need to know that I'm a rebel and instead of the 5 or 7 rounds suggested for each block in the pattern I did 6! I wanted my purse to be an in-between size. I ordered 5 balls of the Felici Fingering Self Striping Sock yarn and have enough left I could have done the 7-round size block.

As I was working on this I realized that anything small would go right through the holes in the block. So I lined the bag. Do you recognize the lining fabric? It is leftovers from the girls camp aprons.



I cut 4 strips the same size at the block strips, sewed them together and then just edge-stitched/crocheted through the lining around the top of the purse and handles (like the crocheted edge baby blankets and burp cloths.)

Stay tuned for my next purse! Is there a 12-step program for making purses?

"I Made My Purse... Like OK?"

Back when Bek's boys were little and she would come visit at Grammie's house frequently we, Camille, Rebekah and I (also known as Cabekah and Remille), would go do fun girl things in little Beatrix. One day we were getting out of the car at our latest shopping stop and Camille said, "I got your purse!" But I quickly added-

"I got your purse, like OK?"

We all laughed at our funniness and that particular saying has stuck as a family quote.

So last month, when Camille's-kind-of-Kevin was in the hospital for back surgery, I saw a purse in the hospital gift shop that I immediately fell in love with! I WANTED THAT PURSE! So on our next visit I decided to go in and take a closer look. I could see through the window that it was leather so I'd prepared myself for an *over $100 price tag*... $240! Are you kidding me? Apparently I'm out of touch with the cost of purses!  I tried to convince myself that I should treat myself... but I just could get there! ($240 is enough for some poor girl in Cambodia to get schooling and free herself from poverty!)

SO...

"I Made My Purse... Like OK?"

Here is my inspiration...

and hefty price tag...

I took my iPhone photo into Photoshop, stretched and cropped it to make a template for half of the applique design. Then I needed the fabric. I had the turquoise and then hand-dyed the lime green. AND I got some turquoise and lime green Chenille-It (I love that stuff!) My original plan was to outline the design with the Chenille-It, but I didn't like the finished look so I just used it on the seams and the top of the outside pockets.

And since I was making a party-purse I needed party lining. I got this down at Corn Wagon.

Pocket are a must-have feature for me!




I get so much satisfaction from creating things! It just makes me happy! I'm so grateful that I have the ability to do this... and I will be so much happier carrying around my very-own-purse-like-ok and helping that sweet person who needs a helping hand!

It's a Sickness

Last month I went to visit all of my family in California and had a lovely time... and as usual I came home with a project! Rebekah had this wonderful canvas bag embellished with Suffolk puffs (aka yo-yos) and buttons.

I HAD to have one!

Since Beatrix only *sips* diesel fuel... we made several trips down to town to get what I needed for MY party bag. I looked at Bek's and thought, "Hmmm, I think I'd like mine a little larger!" (What WAS I smokin'?)

I've been working on this bag for the last month, pretty much neglecting any other project except indexing... it is another one of my sicknesses! Sometimes bigger isn't always better... my finished bag was going to be big enough to fit a sleeping bag in... I'm not joking! So it was time to improvise. I have a fun cow/pinto purse that I got recently and taking some cues from it I constructed this bag. But since it was going to be significantly bigger I needed to add a few things. First, I wanted to have a hard bottom. I dug around and finally sacrificed an old scrapbooking accordion folder thing to make the bottom. But then I wanted to be able to wash the bag without the plastic bottom, so I added a second zipper to the bottom seam of the lining to facilitate that. After lots of *make-it-up-as-I-go*...

This is my finished party bag!

The stats:

• 63 Suffolk puffs
• 5 yo-yo flowers
• 8 appliqued flowers
• 15 appliqued leaves/grass
• 70 buttons
• 29 beads

Bek, who shares many of my sicknesses, added pocket to her bag. We MUST gave pockets. So this is my pocketed inside. (You can see the zipper in the bottom.)

I have HAD a whole stock of old zippers and used one for my new bag. And I just happened to have some zipper pulls left over from Christmas so I put one on my bag. It makes me happy.

Now lest you think me a mean girl who doesn't want to share her ideas, I will tell you that I've looked in vain for a publishable link for this great project. I will share what I do know. Here is a photo of Tita Leach's (of Rickerty Raggs) original bag.

Bek got the magazine from a friend and she thinks it is Australian Homespun Magazine. I've Googled all of the possible combinations I could think of and all I could come up with is a possible address tita_leach@yahoo.com.au. I've sent her an email trying to get more information and will update here if I get anything.

UPDATE****

If you are interested here is Tita's email to me.  Or you can just wing it (but remember that bigger isn't always better!)

Hello Joanie,

Yes the bag was published in Homespun magazine from Australia. I never made up a pattern for it as it was being published through them. You could contact Homespun and see if they have a copy of said magazine. If memory serves me I think it was published last year. I was surprised how popular it was. I am off to the US on Saturday as I am taking a quilt tour. If you get no joy from Homespun please email me again. I will be back in Oz at the end of May. Lovely to hear from you,

Kind regards Tita Leach.

Also check out the first comment it is from Homespun Magazine. (Yay little Joanie! I uncovered the link!)

Joanie's Pinto Purse

I bought the cutest new purse online at Target (this one is not sold in stores)! They fished me right in with their "buy 1- get 1 50% off"! I actually went looking for this purse... but as soon as I saw THIS ONE I knew I had to have it too. (See how well that works out... buy 1 get 1?)



Look at the darling detail work!



Now I know that they say that this is a cow purse (which in never bad in my opinion) ... BUT it looks just like a pinto pony to me! So that's what it is!

I just want to go somewhere so I can carry my new purse... silly girl!

(On another funny note- when I was tagging this post I found that "shopping" is no where to be found in my tag cloud!  I guess that's a good thing!)

059- Use It Up...

... Wear it out... Make it do... Or do without!

I learned that fun little poem years ago from my friend Nancy Lenker. I've always liked it since it typified how I was raised.

Last weekend a DS called and asked if I could repair some of his jeans prior to him going out of town. (Funny aside his brother had been here a few days before with a *new* pair of jeans that were all patched and frayed looking! I told him MY patch work wouldn't show like that! LOL)

He arrived with the two pair he wanted patched and then what he termed a pair of *sacrificial jeans*. I experienced more than a little bit of anxiety because he wanted me to use white thread and go for the look his brother had. (I normally use a thread that matches the pants and you don't notice the patched area.) He was delighted with the results and took off early the next morning with 2 stylin' pair of jeans!

But then I just had this pair of now-sacrificed jeans that kept calling to me... you know what I mean? So last night in a fit of creativity I attacked what was left of them and made-it-up-as-I-went. I dug into my fabric stash and pulled out some fabric (green, of course) that was left over from making Camille some throw pillows, my old embroidery thread roll (that I inherited from my Mom... I just love the memories attached to it) and a lime green zipper that I've had around for I-don't-know-how-long... (but the price was 40 cents, so that should give you some idea) and a different black zipper. By bed time I had the purse all finished except for the embroidery. The funny part is that I spent as much time this morning adding the embroidery as I did last night constructing the purse.