Sew Powerful Purses #181-183 (2025)

2 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. One is the no pocket version with a partial Dresden Plate and a button bee. The second purse is another flap using a paper napkin that is cover in an iron clear vinyl.

Partial Dresden Plate quilt block with button bee.

No pocket version.

Using a napkin with clear iron on vinyl over it on the flap. Background was first texture painted.

This one has a front pocket.

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Sew Powerful Purse #180 for 2025

I made this purse for last month's June Bee Challenge in the Facebook group for Sew Powerful Purse Project. I saw the bee made out of buttons on Pinterest, so I tried it, but I used a piece of embroidered trim for the wings. I made a few purses with the bee button and a partial Dresden Plate quilt block like this one.

Bee button and other buttons I sewed little flowers on to hold them in place.

This pretty exterior fabric was donated to me. I pieced webbing scraps together

with ribbon to cover the joins in order to make a longer strap.

No pockets on this purse on the back or the front. Next month a new pattern comes out without pockets added on. I think they meant to announce it later, but it got mentioned. So this was the first one I tried without pockets and it was much quicker to sew, which was the idea behind the no pocket version. Also, September is the annual Sew-a-thon Fundraiser for Sew Powerful and I think they wanted to come up with ways to make sewing the purses faster so they would receive more purses. We can still make any version we want to make and the 3 flaps are still interchangeable too. I can tell you it is so much easier and faster not to add the pockets, so I will be making more this way for sure. Plus, it saves on fabric and interfacing and that means less cost as well. Yay!

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Table Topper for Lamp Light

This table lamp was purchased by my father when I was a teenager. After he passed away, my mother had it in her home for many, many years. Mom passed in 2016 and my sister had the daunting task of dealing with all of mom's possessions, since she lived the closest to her and in the same state. Sis asked if there was anything I wanted and I wanted this table lamp. 

The lamp had the original lamp shade in an off white color and it really needed to be replaced. So we found one online and I chose a blue-gray color for the shade which I thought looked better and went with the blues in our living room. My husband loves this table lamp and has set up a chair for himself next to it so he can drink coffee or tea in the early mornings. He mentioned he would like me to make him a table topper sometime to fit on top of the glass table. I thought about it for a while. 

Then I decided to make a cog-looking Dresden Plate topper and make it with a slit like a tree skirt, so it would fit with the lamp pole running through the table part. I made the topper and didn't sew the last connecting section and just added binding all around the topper. No need to have that round center appliqué covering the center hole made either, since I needed a hole space in the center to fit around the lamp pole. I quilted the topper too. Husband loves it and now he doesn't have to worry so much about placing his cup too hard down on the glass table top. I couldn't get a decent photo of the entire table with the lamp shade.

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Sew Powerful Dresden Plate Purse Flap

One of the Crafter's Edge Design Team members made a small Dresden Plate a while ago using the Tumbler die cut. I thought what a great idea! Anorina's Dresden Plate came out so cute that I had to give it a try too. I decided to put my Dresden Plate on a Sew Powerful Purse flap, that is denim. I used the smallest Tumbler die cut for this Dresden Plate, which uses 16 Tumbler die cuts. I also made another Dresden Plate using a larger Tumbler die cut, but I need to create something with that Dresden another day. I also used 2 of the circle die cuts in the center.

I sewed the Dresden Plate to the purse flap by hand around the pointed edges and used a machine blanket stitch around the 2 circles, which are the circle die cuts that I used. I like how this looks, but it just needed a bit more pop.

So for a bit more pop, I made orange French knots all around the Dresden Plate.

 Plus I added a stacked button in the center of the circles. That gave it a bit more bling and pop.

Here is the finished purse:

Looks great finished into a purse and photographed outside in natural light too.

I used 16 different purples that I had for the blades. You need a large circle when using the Tumbler Die Cuts as a Dresden Plate.

I used a lighter denim for the lining of the flap and the purse front. The ribbon I stitched because I had to piece the front pocket to make it larger enough, so a piece of stitched on ribbon to the rescue and no one would ever know I didn't have a large enough piece for the pocket (except you reading this, lol).

The lining is a blue floral. The inside pocket is dark denim.

The back of the purse.

The side of the purse. I like to add a rivet for extra security for the strap. I tucked the strap inside the purse, as this is how I mail them.

These are the Crafter's Edge die cuts that I used in making this purse flap:

Crafter's Edge die cuts makes piecing and applique go so much faster.

One young lady in Zambia will choose this purse to keep as her very own. I mailed this purse along with 45 other purses in a large box to Renton, Washington in late November. The ship is supposed to sail with all the Sew Powerful Purses that were sent to Renton, WA in December. 

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