Sew Powerful Purses #103-121 for 2023

I somehow posted the other purses I made after these first! Oops. I made these purses for the Sew Powerful Sew-a-thon and Fundraiser before those I posted today, so the order is a bit screwed up. So here are the purses I forgot to post before.

This fabric was a home dec fabric that was donated and I thought they would make nice purses. I made 9 purses from this Winne the Pooh fabric. I had to use a tiny blue gingham for the gusset on some as I ran out of the Winnie print.

The cut of this purse had Tigger pictured. As I cut, some things shifted as the focal point.

These 3 have the Winnie the Pooh print on the gusset.

The ones stacked behind all have the gingham blue gussets.

A couple in an African women print.

I appliquéd the lions onto the flap fabric. I was donated some fabric that had African animals and so I thought I would use them in the purse flaps.

These are showing what is under the lion flaps.

The one on the left is either a Springbok or an Impala (I think?) and the cat on the right is a leopard.

Under the flaps from above.

I love how colorful the prints of these giraffes are. 

Under the flaps.

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Sew Powerful Purses #122-136 for 2023

Still plugging away at finishing purses for the 2023 Sew-a-thon (SAT) for Sew Powerful.  Here are 15 more purses I finished during the SAT, bringing my SAT total to 89 purses, so far. I finished another 9 purses today and am still sewing more. I have until September 30th to add up my total sewn for this month.

Here are the 15 purses I finished recently:

2 with African women fabric prints.

Different lining fabrics.

A couple of zebras that I appliquéd to the flaps and I used 2 different fabrics for

 the exterior body.

Inside of the zebra purses.

Sailboat print for this one.

Appliqué elephant on flap.

Another appliqué zebra on blue fabric.

I created a scrappy denim flap using lots of denim upcycled from jeans. That embroidered piece was already on the denim. I added a bird and a cat button and 3 crystals too. Sewn raw edge style and quilted.

The back side shows where a pocket once was. I added a couple of crystal

s where there was a tiny hole.

2 more scrappy upcycled denim jean flaps. The one on the right was raw edge and heavily quilted. I added buttons and couched yarn too. Very shabby chic. 

Back side has the front pocket jean sewn here.

2 purses with flaps that are from a fabric of printed scrappy patchwork that looks like denim and lace and crystal that is all printed on the fabric.

These 3 purse flaps also look a bit like denim that was printed with words and other designs and crystals. I did add a few real crystals on top of the printed crystals.

Close up of the real crystals I added. Can you see them? Looks so much better when the sun makes the crystals sparkle and shine. The girls will love the extra crystal bling!

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Sew Powerful Purses #91-102 for 2023

I completed 12 more purses for the Sew-a-thon (SAT) 2023. I used selvages on some and upcycled denim jeans on others. It's a great feeling to create something useful, nice looking, upcycle and use selvages that most people would throw away! Those selvages do make sturdy purse flaps too.

This was fabric donated to me. I love those large flowers and using certain fabric prints I just want to use the whole thing as a flap instead of sewing scraps to create the flap. This is one where the flap fabric by itself is perfect.

Here are two flaps made using selvages. I love experimenting with how I will sew the selvages. The one on the left I started with the hexagon scrap of a child and sewed selvages around it. The one on the right was a simple diagonally laid out pattern of selvages.

3 more selvage flaps, set in different ways.

Another 2 selvage flaps, but these have upcycled denim bodies.

I used the front pocket on the back side of one and added a denim pocket with the heart I appliquéd on to the back of the other one.

One scrappy flappy and one selvage flap, both with denim bodies from upcycled jeans.

2 more scrappy flappies with upcycled denim jean bodies. The one on the right was made from a donated Friendship Star quilt block in batik fabrics that I placed on point and then sewed fabric around it, and then I cut it to shape. 

The back side of the last 2 purses with the front pockets from denim jeans to create pockets on the back of these purses. Such fun to have a little surprise pocket like this on the back and it's useful too!

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Sew Powerful Purses 77-90 (2023)

More Happy Scrappy Flappy purses finished for Sew Powerful, during their annual Sew-a-thon.

I found the pink fabric on a free table at one of my groups. Just enough to make the body and the scraps were used in the flap, along with other scraps I had that went with the colors in the print.

Cute "shopping" fabric. 

Close up of the print.

I love playing with selvages and making flaps. They make a sturdy flap and so interesting to look at.

Added a slip pocket to the back.

The main floral print for all 12 of these purses was given to me by a friend. The floral print looks a bit like a painting and once cut into the purse pieces it looked different with each purse. I made scrappy flaps using the leftover floral fabric and other scraps.

You can see how each purse has a bit different look once the fabric was cut. I added slip pockets on the back of the purses too.

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Sew Powerful Purses #71-76 (2023)

6 more purses completed during the September Sew-a-thon (SAT). 

The print on the flap was donated to me awhile ago. I made several purses using the same print along with my own scraps. The piece I was given was a border print, so I just cut it into various shapes and scrappy pieced around the shapes. But I had a couple that I wanted to cut into a circle to appliqué onto the flap instead. Using rickrack around the circles added a bit of pop. I also added lots of French knots around the circle on the left. And a few crystals at the top.

The flap lining was also donated to me by the same woman and it is an African print fabric.

These 2 are die cuts from Crafter's Edge. The bird is one of a series of bird die cuts designed by Sue Spargo, who is known for here folksy bird appliqué. Sue usually works with wool.

Tiny buttons to embellish the wing and a crystal eye.

I used a dark crystal eye and a crystal at the tip of the unicorn's horn.

A selvage flap and scrappy brown flap.

Denim body for the selvage flap purse that was made from upcycling denim jeans. A pretty brown print that I had just enough to make the body of the brown purse.

Back pockets! I added the front jean pocket to the back and added a slip pocket on the brown purse.

Won't you please donate any amount to Sew Powerful during their September Fundraiser & Sew-a-thon? It takes $10 to fill a purse with the hygiene items that are reusable. This keeps a girl in school all month and the seamstresses there are employed by Sew Powerful, so they can earn a good wage for making the needed items for the girls. It's a win-win for all. 

Please go to Sew Powerful and click on the Donate Now Button and then use my participation number: 77640 when you make your donation. Every dollar adds up, so whatever amount you can give is much appreciated by me, Sew Powerful & of course the girls who will benefit from your donation. 

Please feel free to pass this info along to your family, friends, church members, etc. so they can donate too. As you can see, I am very passionate about helping these girls who live in extreme poverty in Zambia. Yes, there are prizes from sponsors, but the real prize for me is changing a young girl's life and giving her hope for her future. Thank you so much!!!!

Hugs,

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