Mama's Bag from Handmade Home
I absolutely love they way this purse turned out. I have been sitting on this fabric for two months waiting for inspiration for a purse pattern to hit me. It kept getting put aside for other projects. Then I got this great book for my birthday (thank-you, Ed):
Handmade Home is just full of projects I can't wait to make. The author, Amanda Soule, also has a wonderful blog called soulemama and another book The Creative Family that I don't own yet. I can't wait to tackle the braided rug she shows in Handmade Home:
And I fell in love with the "Mama's Bag" the first time I saw it.
Her instructions for the bag are very clearly written. A beginner could certainly follow them with no problem. The things I changed were minor. I added an extra inner layer of flannel to give the purse more body. I made the bag slightly wider and added about 4 inches in depth. I also made two simple inner pockets to the lining on the inside seen here:
The author's approach to sewing with scraps and repurposed textiles really appeals to me. It is something I enjoy doing myself, and the way she uses these items in her projects is really inspiring. For my own bag, I set a goal of not buying any additional materials to complete this project. While I had already bought the outer main fabric, I limited myself to other fabric, thread, scraps etc. that I already had for the lining and straps and other things needed to complete the project. I couldn't be more pleased with the results.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 08:17PM
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Reader Comments (2)
Excellent purse! I've been Soule's blog before, but I didn't realize she had so many sewing-project ideas. I really love the idea of repurposing, too, although I'm running into the problem that I really don't have that much at home to repurpose. I don't have a real stash of scrap fabrics, for instance. I guess that's something you build up over time.
Well, and she's a big thrift store/church bazaar/yard saler so she gets a lot of old fabric, scraps, trims that way. I have inherited things from my mom -- old tablecloths, doilies, etc. and some from Ed's grandmother. You might ask your mom if she has some secret stash of stuff like that in some forgotten box in the attic. Also, I never throw away Ed's old shirts. You can get a ton of great fabric from one men's size XL shirt!