Sew Powerful Purses #56-62

I made 7 more purses for the Sew Powerful Purse Project. Some were made upcycling denim jeans from hubby, some were made with fabrics that were generously donated to me by a woman from the FB Sew Powerful group, thanks Karen! I have a lot more fabric from Karen and hubby's jeans, so I will be making many, many more purses using those again.

These purses are all the intermediate style with the gusset, but I used the beginner flap because it is plain and allows me more room to get creative, which I love and the flap making is my absolute favorite part of making theses purses! I really love the intermediate purse and it's great that you can mix or match from each purse style. I made well over 100 purses in the beginner style and once I switched to the intermediate, I knew this would be the purse I would continue to make as I find it actually easier than the beginner style. I like to topstitch on both sides of the gusset to make the purse look better and to really secure those 1/4-inch seams too. I have added a back pocket to some of these purses, which I will do if I have enough fabric that matches the exterior fabric that I have used.

I cut out all of the fabric pieces needed for these purses, except for the flap. Since I don't know if I will have enough fabric for the flap, I would rather wait and see what exterior fabric is left after cutting the other exterior pieces first. Then if I don't have a large enough piece, I will use the scraps of exterior fabrics I have along with maybe the lining fabric scraps or other fabric scraps that might look good with it and then I will create the flap by sewing a scrappy free form (also called crumb quilt) piece. Sometimes I will sew it quilt as you go (QAYG) or sew the flap and then quilt it afterwards. I also tend to add one or more appliqué shapes (flowers mostly) and embellish with buttons. All this tends to take a bit more time than just cutting out a fabric for the flap, but I love doing the flap as I mentioned and it fulfills my creative side at the same time. The flap is mainly the part of the purse that you see and so I want to make it fun and happy as well as functional. Bonus is that I am using up some scraps! 

I even started making the notecards by fusing fabric appliqué motifs to cardstock. I just did that yesterday, so these purses don't have those cards in the pockets, since I had made other cards already. Including a notecard is required for each purse, but some people only make notecards, so then those purse makers who don't like to make the notecards will still have a notecard included.

Anyhow, on to the purses~

Thanks to Karen for the main exterior fabric. I created the flap using some scraps of the main fabric and other scraps that went with the main fabric. Added a few appliqué flowers and circles and buttons. 

The back of the purse shows the main fabric better.

Thanks to Karen again for the main fabric for this purse. Another scrappy flap with a larger flower appliqué. I sewed the scraps first and then quilted this flap. (Check out my Tip of the Morning Tuesday at the top menu of my blog to see how to make this style flower from a circle).

A better view of this flower fabric. A notecard is peeking above the front pocket.

I did add a back pocket on this purse as I had enough of the main print. 

Karen gave me a lot of beautiful batik fabrics and this is one of them. I used this green print to cut out a flap, but it needed a bit of pop, so my circle appliqué flower technique worked great here. Embellished with buttons and an appliqué flower trim piece.

This brown batik print was also from Karen and paired nicely with the lemon or lime batik flap. The shape of that print looks like lemons to me, but they are green like limes, so you decide which citrus they are, lol!

An added back pocket on this one too.

Another exterior print from Karen. She gave me quite a bit of this print, so I will be making more purses with it. I just had to add something to the flap and I had this appliqué heart already cut out in my cut appliqué box so I added it to the flap. I think it was just what it needed. 

Kind of reminds me of fireworks.

A back pocket too. Oh and that strap I had made already, so I used it on this purse.

Upcycling denim jeans for the body of the purse, so I added some denim scraps to create the flap. Then a large flower appliqué was just the ticket.

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I really love how this QAYG flap turned out. Mostly brown scraps

 to go with the brown print exterior and brown webbing strap, so it needed a bit of a punch and that flower color was the pop it needed, along with a few blue buttons.

Back of purse, but no pocket. Not enough of this brown print left.

Upcycled denim again, so this flap I used 2 shades of denim scraps in it, along with red and gold fabrics.

I even used gold thread for the topstitching to match the original gold thread jean stitching.

The fun pocket on the back of this one is the front pocket from the jeans. The back pockets unfortunately are larger than the size I need to cut for the back of the purse, so the front pocket works here! This is the 3rd purse I made like this. 

I did add a heart appliqué on the flap, but on the first photo of this purse you cannot see the heart, so I wanted to show it here, along with the back pocket.

So there are 7 more purses that will be making their way to Zambia to help out 7 more girls. I really enjoyed making these purses. Maybe you want to try making a purse for yourself or to donate to Sew Powerful too? You might get hooked on making them like I did or maybe just want to make one. Every purse counts and every one helps a girl to stay in school.

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Fabric Container to Hold Crafter's Edge Die Cuts & Plates

As a Design Team Member for Crafter's Edge, I am making a project each month using the Crossover II Die Cut Machine by Crafter's Edge and one or more of the die cuts that I have. This month I used several circles from the 0.5" Increment Circles die cuts (there are eleven sizes of circles in the Circle Die Cut set) and I also used the 1-inch strip die cut, which comes in the 1 and 1.5" Strip Cutters. 

I wanted to create a fabric bin container to hold my die cuts, foundation plate, cutting plate and top clear plates for using the cutting dies, as well as the instruction booklet. This way all my items for cutting are in one place and easy to find. I used gallon size clear plastic zip bags to place each die cut in, along with the cardboard information and photo of the die for each bag. 

So here is what I created and I am very pleased with how cute it looks as well as how functional it is too.

The circle die cuts made it quick and easy to cut several circles in various sizes at once. I also cut 1" strips for the stems (I will show at the end how I did the stems). I cut the leaves the old fashioned way by hand, lol!

Inside the fabric container is very roomy. I made a sleeve that I placed a heavyweight Peltex stabilizer inside of to stiffen the bottom a bit.

This is the other side of the container with more flowers and butterflies I cut out from a fabric print.

I added purse feet on the bottom.

I love that background fabric and thought it was perfect for this project.

Here is one of the die cuts I received, the Gingerbread House, that now lives inside the container. (Stay tuned for a project that I am working on using the Gingerbread House die).

Here are the Circle die cuts that I used. I placed this die cut inside a clear plastic gallon zip bag to keep the die cuts and information for it together. I did the same for each different die cut that I received and they now all reside in their plastic bags inside the container I made. I can thumb through them to find the die cut that I want to use.

The plates and dies in their zip bags residing in their new home. 

I can flip through them to find the die cut I need to use.

There is plenty of room for more dies inside. 

I also added a couple of handles to the container to be able to grab it and carry it when needed. A couple of rivets I also added to each side of the handle as well.

Here is how I made the stems~

I cut the 1" strips for stems and pressed 1/4" to the wrong side. I use Elmer's purple disappearing water soluble glue stick to run along the strip and then press in place. The glue holds it well, but no gumming up the needle when sewing.

Next, I pressed the other raw edge almost to the fold  on the wrong side and glued it in place too. I glued the stem in place and blanket stitched it along both sides. I could also straight stitch the edges too.

I did make one stem for the larger flower wider, by pressing the raw edge to the center on both sides, so that the larger stem measures 1/2" and the smaller stem measures 3/8".

After I made this container, I decided to buy a couple of metal tags that Crafter's Edge sells on their website. This one says Made by Hand and has a heart cutout on it. So as an afterthought, I added it on the handle with some embroidery Perle Cotton. The perfect little touch. I love my container!

 My container is both functional and oh so pretty!

I used the 1" strips for making the flower stems as I showed you above.

 And one of the 1.5" strips for the larger stem.

I used a variety of circles from the Circles die cuts to make the flowers.

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