Sew Powerful Purse #238 (2025)

• Esther Mkandawire (from Zambia) visited Sew Powerful earlier this month and went to a few places with Jason & Cinnamon of Sew Powerful to talk about Zambia and the purse program and more. I watched a video thanking the purse makers who sent in purses this month and Esther was there in the video and she helped out. Esther is the Zambia Program Director, she founded the Needs Care School and 3 Esthers Farm to provide fresh food to the children in Zambia.
• Jason asked her what her favorite animal was and her favorite color and she answered that sheep are her favorite animals and purple is her favorite color. So I decided to make a purse in Esther's honor and this is the purse I made. I don't think it will go to Esther herself, but one girl will receive it and maybe Esther will see it? I will write on the notecard the reason I made this purse.
• I used an Amy Bradley appliqué pattern and reduced it to fit on the purse. 

These sheep crack me up and look so cute in purple fabric prints.

Front and pocket.

Fundraiser going on through September 30th. Please donate here in my name, so they can see how much I helped to raise. Thank you so much!!!

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2024 Sew-a-thon Bronze Level Prize Winner #2 Completed the Purses!!!

I emailed Laura that I would be sending her the Prize that she won from me (5 purse flaps). I mailed them the next day after emailing her. (I also emailed the other winner of 5 flaps for prize #1 set of flaps too). Laura was kind to send me an email when the purse flaps arrived to her, which happened to be on October 15th that they were received.

Then Laura shared this photo on our Facebook group Saturday the 19th (actually it was a comment in the posting that I shared the 2 prizes of flaps). Her photo was sideways, so I turned it and added the text to the photo. Wow! She was not only fast in making these, but they turned out great! She chose the perfect fabrics to compliment the flaps. 5 girls will be thrilled to receive these purses.

Thanks so much Laura for taking the time to share this photo of the completed purses with me. I appreciate it so much! 

Haven't heard a peep from the other prize winner. She is not in the Facebook group. I did email her, but it is possible it went to SPAM, however, I did enclose 2 of my business cards along with the flaps and it does have my email on the cards. I have checked my Spam box and nothing there and I check often. It doesn't cost people anything to thank a business or a person for winning a prize, even if they don't like the prize they won. At least an acknowledgement that the prize was received would have been appreciated, but nothing? It leaves me feeling let down.😢 I have had Covid since the 6th and still am not 100% better yet. I haven't been able to do much at all, so was at least hoping my prizes were well received.  At least this one was! Thanks Laura!

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I am a Bronze Level Prize Sponsor for the 2024 Sew Powerful Sew-a-thon

Hello everyone, I wanted to let you know that I am one of the sponsors this year for the Sew Powerful Sew-a-thon. As a Bronze level sponsor, the total value of the prize equals $100, but I could divide it into more than one prize and I decided to create 2 prizes (each prize is valued at $50). I created 10 purse flaps for the the Sew Powerful purses and 2 winners will win 5 flaps each.

I used different techniques in creating the purse flaps too. For each prize I made a flap out of selvages, batik pieced flap, a painted flap, a pieced flap with an appliqué butterfly on it, and a raw edge scrappy quilted flap. So, do you want to see the flaps I made for the prizes? Of course you do! Check them out below:

If you would like to join in on the Sew-a-thon & Fundraiser for 2024, you can pre-enroll now and get some fun extras. Check it out here!

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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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Sew Powerful Purses #137-163 (2023)

These purses were sewn during the Sew Powerful Sew-a-thon (SAT) & Fundraiser during the whole month of September. I completed 118 purses for the SAT and I still have 4 more days to sew. I beat my total from last year, which I completed 116 purses. I didn't have a goal, but sewed as many as I could. So at the end of the day on Saturday I will see how many more purses I have completed for the SAT and will post them and let you know my final total completed just in September. I hadn't sewn many purses earlier this year as I was so busy cutting and making purse kits up in advance because I knew I wanted to have more than I could sew on hand, just in case. Will finish more purses after the SAT, but probably won't sew any in October, just to take a break.

 

More flower panels.

I sewed this raw edge and lots of quilting to hold it all together. It turned out kind shabby chic style. Added ribbons the label from husband's denim jeans and a few belt loops too. And since the label says Urban Star,  I added a doubled stacked star button too.

The back side doesn't have a pocket, but I had a leftover quilted piece that I die cut out a heart to appliqué onto the back instead.

I added a hexagon flower and the embroidered little flower I added to cover up a small frayed part of the jean pocket.

These and the ones below were scraps leftover from making 2 custom tote bags (Dancing Diamond Gem Bags). I add more fabric strips as needed for each one and use a blue and white polka dot batik fabric that I have had for years for the body of the purses. I bought the rest of that bolt of batik because it was only $1 per yard back then on clearance. I think I finally have used it all up, except for a few tiny scraps.

Closeup of the flower sewn buttons.

I sewed these buttons on differently for fun.

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