Sew Powerful Purses #355-367 (2024). The Last Purses for This Year!

These are the last purses I made for this year to donate to Sew Powerful. A grand total of 367 purses made in 2024!!! That's just over a purse a day!!! I am pooped and tired of sewing these as I really made a lot this month, so I am switching gears and will be finishing some UFO quilts that I started a while ago. Hopefully I will get those quilts all done before starting back on the purses. But it all depends on what mood I am in and what I feel like sewing on.

Here are the last 13 purses I made for this year. I packed them up along with other purses already in the box and mailed 100 more purses to Sew Powerful on December 10th. 

2 selvage flap purses.

2 upcycled denim jean purses. I made these with raw edges and lots of quilting to hold the pieces together. I was experimenting with these, since piecing denim the traditional way creates such thick seams! The embroidery of the birds was from some denim scrap for cut up jeans I was given. I think I will experiment with doing the raw edge with decorative machine stitches on the flap only next time.

The front pockets I made in the same raw edge/quilted way.

The back pockets are also raw edge and quilted. 

Decorative stitches flap with added rickrack and couched yarn. I upcycled a hand dyed linen shirt that I wore a lot, but sadly had worn thin under the arms, so I turned it into a purse. Scrappy batik pieced flap on the right.

Closeup of the decorative stitches and rickrack.

The hand dyed shirt purse on the left.

On the back I used the front pocket from the hand dyed shirt and created a back pocket that has the little pocket on top.

5 purses with appliqué stars and scraps sewn around the star blocks.

The backs with pockets.

1 more selvage flap and a pieced 9-patch on point with scraps around it.

Upcycled denim jeans on the right.

The denim pocket from the upcycled jeans to make the right purse.

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Sew Powerful Purses #347-354 (2024)

8 purses done. 5 with appliqué on the flaps and 3 scrappy pieced flaps. Donated to Sew Powerful.

Appliqué on these 5 purse flaps. The flap material is different from the purse body material, but it went well together. Both red fabrics for the flaps and the purse bodies were donated fabrics.

Flaps up showing front with notecards in pockets. The red fabric is a sturdy home dec type fabric.

Scrappy pieced purse flaps using sewing machine theme fabrics and other fabrics.

Notecards in pockets. Sewing theme purse bodies.

Backs of purses, 2 with added back pockets.

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Sew Powerful Purses #342-346 (2024)

5 more purses using a variety of flap techniques: scrappy piecing, quilt blocks, appliqué, painted background and stenciled flaps. Donated to Sew Powerful.

Purse flaps all different.

A variety of fabrics used for each purse.

Pockets on the backs.

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Sew Powerful Purses #337-341 (2024)

5 purses with yellow and orange scrappy flaps. These were donated to Sew Powerful.

Bright and sunny scrappy purse flaps.

Notecards in front pockets.

Backs with pockets.

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Sew Powerful Purses #328-336 (2024)

9 more purses donated to Sew Powerful. These purses have various techniques that I used: decorative machine stiches using a circular attachment, painted flaps, appliqué flaps, upcycling, machine decorative stitches (non circular) and lots of embellishments.

These 2 purses were made with a wool (or wool blend?) suiting material. I shared one purse yesterday made with a purse body using this material too. For these purses I wanted to play with the circular attachment for making round decorative stitches. I am getting better using the attachment, but still have a lot to learn. The hardest part is knowing how to end the circle when the stitch design won't make a complete stitch to the very end. Either I stop short and there is a gap of fabric showing, or I stitch until the stitching touches, even though the stitch pattern isn't complete at that end, so it looks a bit off, which I don't care for. Sometimes I am lucky and it completes a perfect circle of stitches, but that has been rare. So embellishments to the rescue! 😂Adding a button or little stitched embroidered flower adds a nice touch, but also hides those wonky joins! 😉 I also just stitched partial circles which looks nice and takes care of that situation too. I found that with some stitches that are going in a circle, the material didn't want to move as easily, so stitches weren't formed perfectly either. I told you there is a lot to learn still. Perhaps some fabrics work better? I did have the material interfaced on the back. Still overall I do love how these flaps turned out and I like the material a lot! Wish I had more of the gray fabric and knew exactly what is was? It washed and dried beautifully, has a great feel to it as well.  

Notecards to the girls in the front pocket.

On the back side I added pockets and I had already stitched a bit more on the piece I had cut for the flap, so I added it as a pocket on the back with the stitching.

5 decorative stitched corduroy flaps, with added rickrack, couched yarn & buttons too.

Cards in the front pockets for each girl.

Back pockets.

 

 Two painted canvas flaps with added appliqué on top. The left purse appliqué is from a rainbow tie dye tank top that I have been cutting appliqué shapes out of and the purse on the right is a batik fabric butterfly.

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Sew Powerful Purses #322-327 (2024)

Six more purses made for Sew Powerful. Lots of different kinds of upcycling in these purses! I really love upcycling as it keeps stuff out of the landfill and it becomes something useful again in a different form.

Years ago when I went to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (in Sisters, Oregon), I also went to Black Butte Ranch (which is a short drive from Sisters) to see the outdoor quilt show on Friday at Black Butte Ranch. Another quilt group usually puts on their show the day before the big Sisters Quilt Show. This quilt group usually has their members make something to sell each year as their little fundraiser, and the year I went they were selling towels (maybe potholders too, I cannot remember for sure). I was attracted to the blue cotton towel with the butterfly embroidery on it. I do not have an embroidery machine and I thought this was a very pretty embroidery, so I bought the towel. Husband didn't like it for a towel in the kitchen, so I kept it for years, not really knowing what to do with it. Then I found it recently and thought what a great purse it would make! I had enough of the towel to make the entire purse out of (except the strap, which I used webbing). It was meant to be a purse!!! The selvage one on the right has a black denim jeans body.

Towel material and upcycled black denim jeans.

The purse on the left is made with the blue towel material and the purse on the right is upcycled black denim jeans.

These 2 flaps were made from a couple of tank tops that my daughter bought in Maui several years ago when she was there. I found them in her giveaway pile, and immediately thought they would make fun purse flaps! I added some crystals to both the flaps if you look closely. On the flower on the left purse and between the Aloha name on the right purse. Girls love a bit of bling and the crystals sparkle in the sunshine.

Upcycled denim jeans for the purse bodies.

The back for the purses. Each are upcycled denim jeans and I appliquéd the back side of the tank tops designs on the back of the purses.

The purse on the left I made using a tiny canvas bag from the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, that I cut the print from the front of the tiny bag off and pieced around it. That was also the poster image of the quilt show from several years ago. (It is the annual quilt show in Sisters, Oregon).  I sewed 2 ribbons on each side and 2 different Renaissance Ribbons on top and bottom and then some batik scraps too. The flap on the right was painted with textures and added appliqué in the corner was from a tie dyed tank top I have been cutting up for appliqué shapes for the purses. I added some decorative machine stitches, buttons, crystals, hand French knots too.

Left is cotton fabric, the right is a wool or wool blend suiting fabric. The wool or blend (not sure as it was donated to me) is a lovely fabric with a nice feel to it and makes a sturdy purse. I made some others in the wool or blend fabric I will share soon too. I wish I had more of that fabric as it is really nice!

Purse backs. Left is cotton fabric, the right is a wool or wool blend suiting fabric.

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