Sew Powerful Purse #95-98 for 2026

Four more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

Scrappy pieced with a fussy cut heart appliquéd to center.

Another flap like the 2 above, but with a flower instead of a heart in the center.

Zentangle flap. I drew the Zentangle over a fabric that I colored first. I did this Zentangle so long ago, before turning in it into a purse flap, that I do not recall if I used paint or crayons to color the white fabric? Being the color is light, I would guess it was crayon, which makes me want to experiment with more crayon on flaps now 😄. It has also been a long time since I did any Zentangles on fabric, so I might be playing with those again too.

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Sew Powerful Purses #91-94 for 2026

Four scrappy pieced fabric purse flaps. One has appliqué added over the piecing. Donating to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

Batik fabrics scraps on both flaps.

The purse flap on the right was neutral fabrics pieced together and then I added the appliqué leaves and butterfly I fussy cut from a fabric, using Mod Podge fabric formula. 

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Sew Powerful Purses #61-63 for 2026

 I made these teapot appliqués years and years ago. Wanted to make a table topper with them, but my layouts just never worked quite right. So when I found these again, I decided they needed to become purse flaps. I had hand blanket stitched around them all those years ago because that was probably when I didn't have a sewing machine that did blanket stitches. So I added some scraps to make the flap the correct size and finished these 3 teapot flap purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

Happy tea drinking and/or sewing!

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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 Purses #15-16 for 2026

Here are a couple of scrappy pieced purse flaps with added flower appliqué. Buttons for the flower centers and extra buttons for bling, plus the flap on the left has some hotfix crystals too. Flower appliqué I upcycled from a rainbow tie dye tank top and die cut the flowers myself. I will miss those rainbow flowers when the tank top is all cut up into flowers. I will have to find a rainbow dyed fabric to die cut more flowers, or just cut other colors.

Sew Powerful Purse Project.

Purple denim for the purse bodies.

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Sew Powerful Purses #13-14 for 2026

2 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. I appliquéd partial Dresden Plate blocks to the flaps and added some buttons.

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Sew Powerful Purses #506-507 for 2025

I had fun playing with the leftover scraps of denim that I had from making purses from upcycled denim jeans. The decorative stitches add a nice touch to the flap, along with some buttons and hotfix crystals. I even made the other purse body pieces using up scraps of the denim as well. All will be donated to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

Upcycled denim jean scraps and decorative machine stitches to create purse flap.

Upcycled denim scraps from jeans for purse body along with decorative machine stitches.

Scrappy pieced flap and appliqué curved center with decorative machine stitches.

Zentangle piece I made years ago that I used for the flap lining.

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Sew Powerful Purses #500-502 for 2025

3 purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

The appliqué I added to this painted flap background is an Ankara design meaning beauty, so I also added the word, beauty. The smallest alphabet lettering I had was still a bit large to fit onto the flap, so I got creative with the placement of the letters. As you can see, beauty just barely fit. The painted background was done by dipping sliced pieces of pool noodles into paint and stamping onto the canvas fabric. The darker circles were the first dip into the paint and I continued to stamp without adding more paint to the pool noodle to get the lighter circles.

This African fabric was given to me by my fabric fairy, 😄.

I made a second flap with the Ankara symbol for beauty, but on this flap I used a computer font to write onto the flap with an acrylic pen. The background was paint-sticks rubbed over a lid I saved from a frozen dessert that had a raised interior design. I sewed on some buttons in the centers of some  of the designs.

Another African fabric from my fabric fairy. 😂

I found this piece of fabric that I had played with years ago, trying Zentangle designs on a stencil Monstera leaf. I added a few crystals and turned it into a flap for a purse.

Yes, my fabric fairy gave me this African fabric print too. Every few inches was the word HIGH-LIFE printed throughout this fabric.

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Sew Powerful Purses #362-375 (for 2025)

Happy October! I love the Autumn months with the cooler weather and pumpkins, the smell of pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and other spices, the fall leaves in a variety of colors, and pinecones. I am not a huge Halloween fan, like most, but I do love seeing the various Halloween decorations around. I just prefer natural Autumn things. 

These 14 purses were made during the Sew-a-thon for Sew Powerful, which has now ended, but you can donate anytime in any amount year round as well. The Sew-a-thon was a success for me! I made 160 purses and received donations way above my goal, so thank you all for supporting me in my effort! The goal for Sew Powerful was not met, but they did receive quite a lot of donations. They received about 4/5ths of their goal. 

I shared one purse using this African mask fabric print recently, so here are the rest of them that I made using that fabric.

The flap lining here I had painted with a stencil awhile back. It was too light for the flap as it could get dirty too quickly, so I used this for the lining. The white fabrics were scraps I pieced together first and then stenciled with flowers. I like the stencil, so I need to find a better background fabric so I can use it on the exterior front next time.

I took this photo of a hot air balloon flying over my house on September 30th. This Saturday starts the annual Balloon Fiesta. The fiesta is a 9 day event in Albuquerque. I will be seeing lots of balloons of all shapes flying in the sky. I see balloons all year long, but the most is in October for the fiesta and during the cooler weather to get the lift the balloons need.

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Sew Powerful Purses #327-329 (for 2025)

3 more purses finished during the September Sew-a-thon for Sew Powerful.

Scrappy pieced flap, a partial Dresden Plate with a button bee, and a painted heart flap with added appliqué flowers.

Purse fronts.

Backs of purses. Center purse is scrappy.

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! If I don't ask for donations then Sew Powerful won't receive any donations to help the girls, so I just have to ask, which isn't easy.

Hugs!!!

Or use QR Code:

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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!

Hugs!!!

Or use QR Code:

Pin It Now!