Sew Powerful Purses #213-215 for 2026

Here are 3 more purses I am donating to Sew Powerful Purse Project. All have an African woman canvas print that was meant to be framed, but I cut the height down to use as a flap and on the first one I also need to add some width to the flap, so I sewed some fabric to the sides and the back top of each flap. I didn't want any heads cut off 😜. I used up all the canvas prints on purses that I had now. 

I had a similar print to this I showed last time I posted. This one is showing her back instead of her front.

I love the colorful head piece.

This is my favorite one with this beautiful woman all the wonderful words printed all over it.

Here is the full flap to see as some of the top does fold to the back side.

The flap lining and the front pocket. I used a black fabric that I painted with paint sticks using a rubbing texture.

This photos shows the purse body fabric and the flap.

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Sew Powerful Purses #205-212 for 2026

8 purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. All are African women prints that were meant for framing. I cut down the height on them all so their heads wouldn't get cut off on the front and I added a strip of fabric to the back that doesn't show on the front.

I like the look of this print and the background color.

These and others below are silhouettes of women. I am finally using the black-orange-yellow print for the purse bodies. I have had that print for many years. It looks like an African print to me.

The print in the center has rhinestones in the print and I added some hotfix crystals over some of the print for extra bling, although you really cannot see it well in the photo, but it is pretty.

Her dress was full length before I had to trim it for the flap.

I like the animals in the background of this print.

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Sew Powerful Purses #69-70 for 2026

2 purses for Sew Powerful Purse Project that I used African woman canvas prints for the flaps. I had to trim off the bottom of each print to fit it to the flap size. I used a Japanese print fabric in orange and red with black Kanji writing on it. Africa meets Japan in these purses. The Japanese print was such a good color match to these flaps.

I wanted to show the entire flap here. Since I had to cut of the bottom of the print in order to not cut of her head when the flap folds to the back, I added a strip of green print to make the flap the correct height, but you cannot see that green when the flap is folded back, so now you can see it.

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Sew Powerful Purses #58-60 for 2026

3 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. The flaps were all made using prints of African women that were meant for framing. Since they are a canvas and similar to vinyl, but stiffer, I wanted to use them for purse flaps. I had to cut the bottom part of each print off to fit the size of the flap, but also since part of the top of the flap is on the back side of the purse when used, I had to cut off the right amount so the head could be seen on the front, which was a bit tricky to get it right.

I had purchased several prints a couple of years ago and forgot about them. When I found them all recently, I started to finish them into flaps for the purses. Most of the prints, I bought one of each, except the two down below I bought 2 of the same print.

I tried to cut off just enough of this print so her head would still show. In doing so, the rest of the dress at the bottom had to be cut off. I could have cut more off the bottom, but it was hard to know this beforehand. This print was narrower than most and so I added fabric strips to the sides to make it wide enough.

These 2 were the same print, but when I cut off the excess from the bottom so it would fit the flap, I cut one slightly higher than the other. You can see more of the women's hand on the right one.

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Sew Powerful Purse #220 (2024)

I made this purse flap by experimenting with using a canvas print. The print was framed and I took off the frame. I wet the print and soaked it in water to make sure it would be okay. It is a bit stiff and has a coating on it, but the water didn't hurt it at all.  I bought several of these prints from the Dollar Tree quite some time ago. Only one Dollar Tree near me had them. This is the 3rd flap I made using the canvas prints I got.

It sewed fine and needed some extra fabric to make the purse wide enough and tall enough (after I first had to trim the bottom down so the woman's head could be seen on the flap), so I added some ribbon strips to this one. A couple of appliqué pieces and buttons too. I have other styles of canvas prints that I haven't made into flaps yet. Next year I will make the flaps and purses on those.

The whole flap here so you can see it all. Above in the first photo the flap is folded to the back side.

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Sew Powerful Purse #62 (2024) for a Special Girl

Sew Powerful sent out their newsletter and they had a small fundraiser that 20 people could join in doing. The idea was to make a purse and mail it to one of the women who is going on the trip to Zambia with some other people in May and she would hand deliver your purse and get a photograph taken of the girl with the purse that you made. There was a donation fee to be paid too, of course. I jumped on this as soon as I read it! I didn't know if I would ever be able to make the trip to Zambia and hand deliver several of my purses to girls, so this was the next best thing! I am so excited to see the girl who receives my purse.

I wanted this purse to be special. I had purchased several canvas prints last year and made one flap, but I couldn't find it! I looked everywhere too. Well it will turn up one day and I will finish making that purse. So in the meanwhile, I grabbed another print and made this flap and completed the purse.

I was at my quilt group last Thursday and won the nametag drawing (again)! That's twice this year I have won. I hadn't won anything in several years past. I received 2 fat quarters of fabric, some sock monkey buttons, a spool of metallic pink thread and a magnetic pin cup. Yay!!! So I used the fat quarter to make the exterior and the other one for the main lining of this purse, but had to use a fabric I had for the flap lining as the fat quarter wasn't large enough to cut all the lining pieces.

I sewed ribbons around the canvas print to bring it up to flap size, stitching each ribbon in place with a decorative stitch using a variegated thread, then I added some buttons, a handmade label, and stitched a decorative stitch down the center of the webbing too.

The flap with the added sewn ribbons around the flap. The canvas print was actually taller with the full dress showing, so I had to cut the height down to fit the height of the flap.

Here is the full view of the flap, since about 2-inches folds to the back side and you couldn't see those other ribbons.

Back of the purse I added a slip pocket and I sewed in 2 strips of the lining fabric to make the pocket wide enough.

Front of the purse shows the pocket under the flap and the flap lining.

Peeking inside the purse to show the lining fabric.

I have several more canvas prints of women that are all different, that I can create more purses for more girls in the future. But I better get the purses I have cut out in kits finished up first. Then I can cut more kits to have ready to sew.

I should have a photo of the girl with this purse sometime in June, so be sure and come back to see it. 

Happy Purse Sewing!

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