Sew Powerful Purses #106-110 for 2026

5 more purses finished. Donating to Sew Powerful Purse Project. These were all made using denim jean scraps leftover from making upcycled denim jean purses. I placed a black tulle over the denim scraps and quilted it to hold it together and cut out the various purse pieces needed to make the purse. I added appliqué on the flaps and stitched with a blanket stitch around each appliqué piece. The second purse was stitched with decorative stitches without tulle on the flap, but all purse pieces do have the tulle overlay.

Decorative stitches and no tulle overlay on the flap.

This was a fabric postcard I made many years ago, so I decided to add it to this flap.

Hope is a die cut. 

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Sew Powerful Purses #100-105 for 2026

Six flaps finished to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

Just a pretty fabric used for the flap. I love that bird and the flowers.

Baby zebra mini panel with scraps sewn around to make it the correct flap size.

Painted texture background with appliqué flower.

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Sew Powerful Purse #85-87 for 2026

3 Scrappy pieced flaps with flower appliqué from that rainbow tank top I have been upcycling to make flower appliqués for the purse flaps. All flowers were die cut. All have the same orange and red Japanese print fabric for the body of the purses.

Donating to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

Perfect purse for Spring and Saint Patrick's Day with all the green prints.

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Sew Powerful Purses #24-29 for 2026

6 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. More scrappy pieced purse flaps with added flower appliqué. Plus one painted purse flap background and a painted flap lining with added Zentangle on another purse!

The flower appliqué on four of the purse flaps are from that rainbow tank top that I upcycled into various flower appliqués. 2 purses have batik fabric flower appliqué.

I love how the orange part of the tank top flower here really pops on the green scrappy flap.

The background is painted texture. Batik flower here.

I made the strap on this purse using 2 fabrics. The flower is pretty with the blue, green and yellow colors from the rainbow tank top.

I like using extra large buttons as flower centers, and it's even more fun to stack a smaller button on top and stitch a little flower in the center.

I had to share this flap lining. I had experimented with painted texture on fabric years ago and adding some Zentangle on top. I LOVE Echinacea cone flowers and I did this one in Zentangle. It was large and took up the whole flap. I chose to use it as a lining so when it is opened the flap can be fully seen like this. If I have used it for the exterior of the flap, the top of the flower would have folded to the back side of the purse and the entire cone part would have been cut off from view. So it made a better lining and a fun surprise for the girl who receives this purse.

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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 #1-10 for 2026

My first 10 completed Sew Powerful Purses for 2026! I had most of the sewing done on these last year, but needed to rest and heal after popping something on my ribcage. I slowly started sewing again a bit here and there and was able to complete these ten purses. 

I painted textures or stencils on the first 5 flaps and added appliqué and the next 5 were scrappy pieced flaps. 

This little print from the 2004 Sisters, Oregon Outdoor Quilt Show, was a tiny tote bag that I cut the print off the front of the little tote to use on this purse flap with added fabric that I pieced to the print to make it large enough for a purse flap. I wish they would sell just small prints like this at their annual quilt show instead of tiny tote bags that aren't very useful as they don't hold much. I bet quilters would buy these prints and save them to make larger quilts or other items, like this purse flap 😉. I should mention this to them, right? I made a purse last year with a different print from one of the Sisters quilt shows too.

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Sew Powerful Purses #425-430 for 2025

6 more Sew Powerful purses finished. I am using up a lot of brown print fabric with blue fabrics and appliqués that I had cut out too. 

2 flower appliqué.

2 heart appliqués.

I like that pinecone fabric for the right flap lining.

Thread spool appliqué.

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Sew Powerful Purses #423-424 for 2025

2 more scrappy purse flaps with flower appliqués to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

I love this large flower (from a die cut). I added stacked buttons in the center.

This flower is also from a die cut and I cut it from a tie dye tank top I had. I am getting a lot of flowers from that tie dye tank top. I love the rainbow colors of the flower.

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Sew Powerful Purses #421-422 for 2025

2 more Sew Powerful purses for a couple of Zambian girls. 

I love adding flower appliqué to purse flaps and especially a sunflower, one of my favorite flowers. 

I had some scraps of this exterior fabric leftover and created the scrappy flap above, using some of the fabric scraps before adding the sunflower appliqué to the flap.

This flap is an X-Block Star quilt block and I added fabric strips around it to make it large enough for the flap. It was a leftover block from a table runner I had made about a year ago.

I had a fat quarter of this print for the exterior and the other purse exterior too. I can make one purse exterior out of a fat quarter, so time to use up some fat quarters that were hanging around for too long.

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