Sew Powerful Purses #318-321 (for 2025)

4 fun purses! Each different. There is some appliqué, embroidery, and piecing, along with denim jean upcycling. 

This is me sewing away at making all these purses I sew year round 😂. I had a selvage that had Brother written on it and I used that so it looked like a Brother brand sewing machine, which I had years ago until it stopped working. I have other machines now, mostly vintage machines and a couple newer machines too. When I say newer, I mean 10 years old or thereabouts.

Denim jeans upcycled for the purse body.

These are 2 cute little gnomes with sewing items. They came from a couple of kitchen towels that were embroidered by some quilting ladies from the group I used to go to and gifted to me. I knew I wouldn't use them as towels for a few reasons (the embroidery makes them stiff and hard to use the front of the towel and they would have gotten dirty too quick as a towel, and husband doesn't like stuff like this as he wants a plain dark towel), so I put them away to think how I could repurpose them into something else. I found them a month or so ago and decided they would make cute purse flaps instead of towels. I used the rest of the towel as my foundation/interfacing. They are pretty cute on these purses.

More upcycled jeans for purse bodies.

This flap was made from bee theme fabric scraps I was given. I added the bee appliqué.

The purse body fabric was also given to me along with the bee fabrics.

UPDATE: I have completed 96 purses for the Sew-a-thon. My goal was 80 purses, which I achieved and I am continuing to sew more purses as I have a lot more kits cut out ready to sew. I know I will make more than 100 purses by the end of the month, but how many is anyone's guess?

Won't you please consider a donation to fill these purses and more with the monthly hygiene items the girls in Zambia need to help them to stay in school all year? It takes $10 to fill one purse with these items. You can donate anonymously if you want to as well.

Please go HERE to make a donation in my honor by September 30th until midnight Pacific time.

Thank you for your support, it means a lot to the sweet girls who receive these purses with the hygiene items inside.

Sharing this post would really help too!

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Sew Powerful Purses #312-314 (for 2025)

3 purse flaps with appliqué bees on these purses. The fabrics are scraps that all have bee related motifs on them. Thanks to Karen for giving me the scraps of bee theme fabric. I made these and several other purse flaps with the bee theme fabric (most without the appliqué bee added).

The left and middle purse body fabric was also given to me by Karen and I was able to get a few purses bodies from that fabric. The wild animals on the lining flaps are a fun surprise.

Thank you to all who have donated to the Sew Powerful fundraiser. You are all so appreciated!

Go HERE to make a donation in my honor. 

Thank you for your support, it means a lot! 

Sharing this post would really help too!

Hugs!!!

Or use QR Code: 

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Bee Kind Blog Hop (Sew Powerful Purse #181 for 2024)

Thanks to Joan of Moosestash Quilting for hosting this blog hop. 

Joan said:

"The Challenge: September is the time to remember that a little kindness goes a long way. Share your “kind” projects. Your favorite charity project, a free online pattern or anything that shows you spread a little kindness, everywhere you go. The Bee's are an important part of life as well, and we all need to be kind to them too! That makes this hop the perfect place to share your Bee Quilts"!

Of course I chose to share a Sew Powerful Purse that I donate to this charity. September is also their annual Sew-A-Thon & Fundraiser, so if you would like to donate to this worthy cause, click the Sew Powerful link above and "bee kind" and donate a little or a lotta to this organization. It takes $10 to fill a purse with the monthly hygiene items the girls need. The $10 is the cost of the materials and the labor that they pay the women right there in Zambia to make the reusable pads, bar of laundry soap and they include 2 pair of underwear in each donated purse. Read more about the story of Sew Powerful by clicking on the link. Thank you for any amount that you can donate to them. The girls thank you too as now they can stay in school and get a good education which will lead to fewer babies being born and better jobs in their future.

Since my hobby and passion is sewing, especially making bags and quilts, I love to use my talents and expertise by making and donating purses to Sew Powerful. I also like donating quilts I make to Project Linus too. I can make more purses each year than I can quilts, so I prefer making the purses and I love experimenting by trying new techniques and ideas on the purse flaps. I am having so much fun doing this and to think that all my efforts are helping young women continue with their education really makes me smile and I feel great that I can help them too.

Not only did I choose to make a purse for this charity, but I chose to add an appliqué bee on the flap too. Some added buttons, crystals, rickrack, decorative stitches and shiny wing material for a little bling too. I just love appliqué!!! 🐝🍯

Under the flap you can see the lining and the front pocket of the purse.

The back of the purse I added another pocket.

Closer look at the bee appliqué. 🍯🐝. I used a sparkly Organza fabric for the wings, but it didn't photograph as realistic as it looks in person. 

Check out the other blog participants and spread some Bee Kind Love!!!🐝🍯

 

Monday Sept 23

MooseStashQuilting.com

Words & Stitches

Selina Qullts

Just  Sew  Quilter

Scrapdash

Tuesday Sept 24

Patchouli Moon Studio (me 🐝)

Quilted Snail

Quilt Schmilt

Quilted Delights

Hazels Daughter

Wednesday Sept 25

BeaQuilter

Karrin's Crazy World

That Fabric Feeling

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Quilting Between the Rails

Thursday Sept 26^th

Just Let Me Quilt

Ms P Designs USA

Quilting Gail

Songbird Designs

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H2O to Go Water Bottle Sling Cross Body Bag with a Honey Bee Appliqué (enlarged)

I made another H2O to Go, but this time I enlarged it to 115%, upcycled some denim pants for the body, and waterproofed the exterior by using Heat-n-Bond's Liquid Vinyl. 

My friend, Tara had worn out the regular sized H2O bag I made her a few years ago. She said she loves this style bag and mainly uses it as any cross body bag to hold her things and to have super easy access to the items she places into the open space meant for a water bottle. (No, she doesn't carry a HUGE water bottle around with her, lol). 

So, I thought I would try enlarging one for her and since she is a backyard beekeeper, I added the honey bee appliqué to the front zipper pocket. The bee helped to jazz up the plain denim. Before I started to sew the bag, I cut the pieces slightly oversized and applied the Liquid Vinyl (LV) according to the directions and let it dry and applied a second coat. Tara's first H2O was made out of quilting cotton and after a lot of use, it was showing signs of wear with some fraying at the base and was getting dirty. I thought the LV would really help with both and that denim was a tougher material too. This one will be a good test to see how much better and longer this version will hold up with the changes I made in the bag. I also decided to use gray webbing for the adjustable cross body strap because it would show less dirt and if it started to wear out, it could be easily replaced. 

This bag at 15% larger is approximately 12.5" High x almost 7" oval base x just over 4.5" deep.

Enlarging the bag allowed me to add a nice large bee appliqué to the front. 

I quilt the bottom bases of all the H2O to Go Bags. It helps to really hold the stabilizer in place.

I didn't have a large enough piece of yellow waterproof canvas for the lining here, which I was going to use, so used this lime green instead. I like the added pop of color the lime adds to the bag.

I used yellow paisley print for the lining inside the zipper pocket. I like to make 2 slip pockets, one with a pen pocket and then make a matching card wallet that can slip into a slip pocket. One pocket is for a phone. I used a bee print fabric inside too.

I used an iridescent fabric for the wings.

Here is the matching little card wallet I made to put into one of the slip pockets. I used the bee print and the gray denim. 

There are 3 pockets. Two for cards and the back one is deeper to put folded cash or more cards. I didn't use LV on the wallet.

I think enlarging it this to 115% for Tara was just right. It allowed it to be large enough without being too huge for her. I surprised her with this bag and she loved it, which made it all worthwhile.

I have 2 more custom H2O to Go bags that I made in June to share with you next another time. 

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