Sew Powerful Purses #164-179 (2023)

These are the last 16 purses that I made during the Sew Powerful Sew-a-thon (SAT) & Fundraiser during the month of September. The total number of purses that I completed during the SAT was 129 purses! That was in month! I had made a few dozen before the SAT and maybe will start sewing more in November again, but I need a break from purses and will work on finishing some quilts in October.

Needless to say, I am tired, pooped, worn out. I didn't really push myself though, but still sewing the same thing every day over and over for 30 days is exhausting!

I am so pleased that I got so many purses finished and I do have a box of 160 purses to mail off, since I had some made prior to the SAT. This is the largest single box I have ever mailed at one time. So heavy that I cannot lift it, so will need husband to do that for me when I have to weigh and drop off at UPS next week.

Here are the last SAT purses, 16 of them. As I was taking the purse kits out of the bags I had them stacked in, I had forgotten about some of them, so it was fun to sew those into purses to see how they turned out. I had fun with the flaps.

I experimented with this flap by using all sorts of small fabric scraps in all shapes and placed them down with raw edges and quilted heavily to hold all the scraps in place. I even washed and dried it before cutting to the flap shape to make sure it would hold up and it did! It felt like an old loved and worn quilt.

I couched yarn, added buttons and crystals for some bling.

Hawaiian print lining and a scrappy fabric heart as the notecard. I used the idea from I Found a Heart to create these hanging notecards.

Back of purse I added a slip pocket. The back side of the heart I stamped with positive quotes and things. I really thought making the hearts would be a great way to use up fabric scraps and the stamping would be faster than writing by hand, but there was as much work in making those hearts as the purse! I did make about 300 hearts, although need to stamp over 100 still. The hearts came out nice, but I don't know if I will take the time to do it again. I made fabric scrappy postcards before these and those took a lot of time too. So maybe I will just cut a small heart from a fabric scrappy pieced something that I made (or just a fabric scrap, not pieced) and glue it to cardstock when I have gone through all of the hearts I have made. 

I loved making these flaps and setting them in various ways. The main fabric is a printed patchwork fine wale corduroy that is so soft and colorful. 

I tried to match a scrappy heart notecard to at least one of the fabrics in the purse, if I could. Some of the inside lining fabrics were different than the flap lining and so the hearts had one of those fabrics on it.

Most of the backs I added a slip pocket to.

3 more here.

These 3 had the same fabric for the flap lining.

I made a few flaps with this fabric, but had one piece left that wasn't quite large enough, so I added the orange fabric to the side.

I thought I had made all of these flower panel flaps, but found these in the last stack of kits I was sewing. Half the panel had positive quotes and half were flowers. I love all these colors and had some nice scraps that worked well to bring the flaps up to size. Usually small panels are too large or too tall and these were great that the flowers showed so well on them (he quotes too). I think I got about 2 dozen (flowers & quotes) out of the yard+ I got. I got enough extra of this panel so it didn't end up getting cut in half, which would have made part of it useless for me and the next person to buy some fabric. I think the fabric should have been a full panel and not yardage so that wouldn't happen.

I didn't have enough of the fabric for the slip pocket, so a fabric scrap to the rescue to piece the 2 fabrics together. Looks like it was meant to be.

Happy Scrappy purple flappies.

Such a variety of linings. Well I am trying to use up what I have. I needed a bit more of the dark purple fabric on the right purse to make it large enough, but didn't have that dark fabric, so used a scrap from the middle purse to piece it larger. Had to do the same for the back of the purse as well. Actually looks good, so if I am ever short a bit of fabric again, piecing will save the purse.

Here are the backs with slip pockets. You can see the little pieced back fabric on the dark purple purse on the right with the dark purple pocket over it.

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