Purse!

I meant to post this back in, oh, September. Better late than never, I suppose.

Every so often, I'll find myself at JoAnn Fabrics. I usually go for a specific purpose (e.g. quilt materials for a baby blanket) but almost always stumble out an hour later with $50 of craft/sewing supplies and wonder, "What just happened?!"

Recently, I managed to make it out without buying anything extra, but something far more dangerous happened: inspiration. So many pretty fabrics! So many pretty colors and patterns! So many embellishments! Next stop: Google.

I found a cute purse pattern (here:http://machenmachen.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/machen-machen-wasp-bag.pdf) that looked simple enough. I'd been needing a new purse for a while anyway. I kept trying out new bags and purses, but there was always something a little off about each one--too little, too big, handles too short, doesn't close. I figured, what better way to get a purse that fit my needs than to make it myself?

As it turns out, making a purse is much harder than quilting. With a quilt, it's all straight lines. The hardest part is cutting all the squares the same size and keeping seam allowances consistent. With a purse (or the pattern I made, anyway), there were curves and pleating and darting and buttons and pockets and handles to line up and oh gosh, did I sew the wrong sides together???

I ended up with this:

I love it. The snap was taken off an old purse that I don't use anymore (+1 for recycling!). I had to redo the pocket 3 or 4 times because I could not get it to flip out right. I learned some very crucial things:

• Basting is my friend, way more than pins.
• Washable pens are key
• Darts aren't scary! Neither are pleats
• Baste, baste, baste.

And of course, I couldn't have done it without my dear friend, who assured me that darts are not, in fact, unattainable by a novice sewer.

Unfortunately, my success with the purse convinced me I was an unstoppable sewing/crafting machine. A little less than a week later, I stumbled out of JoAnn's again, this time with supplies for a laptop bag. Dun dun DUNNNN. Yes. We'll see how THAT goes...