Sew Powerful Purses #355-367 (2024). The Last Purses for This Year!

These are the last purses I made for this year to donate to Sew Powerful. A grand total of 367 purses made in 2024!!! That's just over a purse a day!!! I am pooped and tired of sewing these as I really made a lot this month, so I am switching gears and will be finishing some UFO quilts that I started a while ago. Hopefully I will get those quilts all done before starting back on the purses. But it all depends on what mood I am in and what I feel like sewing on.

Here are the last 13 purses I made for this year. I packed them up along with other purses already in the box and mailed 100 more purses to Sew Powerful on December 10th. 

2 selvage flap purses.

2 upcycled denim jean purses. I made these with raw edges and lots of quilting to hold the pieces together. I was experimenting with these, since piecing denim the traditional way creates such thick seams! The embroidery of the birds was from some denim scrap for cut up jeans I was given. I think I will experiment with doing the raw edge with decorative machine stitches on the flap only next time.

The front pockets I made in the same raw edge/quilted way.

The back pockets are also raw edge and quilted. 

Decorative stitches flap with added rickrack and couched yarn. I upcycled a hand dyed linen shirt that I wore a lot, but sadly had worn thin under the arms, so I turned it into a purse. Scrappy batik pieced flap on the right.

Closeup of the decorative stitches and rickrack.

The hand dyed shirt purse on the left.

On the back I used the front pocket from the hand dyed shirt and created a back pocket that has the little pocket on top.

5 purses with appliqué stars and scraps sewn around the star blocks.

The backs with pockets.

1 more selvage flap and a pieced 9-patch on point with scraps around it.

Upcycled denim jeans on the right.

The denim pocket from the upcycled jeans to make the right purse.

Pin It Now!

Sew Powerful Purses #230-232 (2024)

Some more purses finished to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. Each has a different style flap.

This purse flap is done with raw edge scraps and heavily quilted. Added button sewn on with little flowers. 

The body of the purse is corduroy, which makes a nice purse.

Added pocket on the back side.

I found an old quilt block I made from maybe 2 decades ago? Geesh, where does the time go? I sewed fabric strips around the flap to make it the correct size and the flap was done.

Hot pink fabric for the purse body.

Back of purse with added slip pocket.

This purse flap was a flap I had painted, but it still needed something more, so I cut a quarter Hawaiian quilt block flower out of an old tie dyed tank top and appliquéd the flower in the corner and added stacked buttons. It still looked unbalanced, so some rickrack, narrow couched yarn, decorative machine stitches, hand stitched French knots and a few more buttons to the rescue.

I used upcycled denim jeans for the body of this purse.

The back has a jean pocket with some appliqué hexagons I already had cut out.

Pin It Now!

Sew Powerful Purse #217 (2024)

Upcycled denim jeans purse. Not only did I upcycle the denim jeans for the purse body, but I used raw edge denim jean scraps to create the flap, along with some decorative machine stitching. A few added buttons for embellishment too.

Donating to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

Raw edge patchy denim jeans scraps with lots of decorative machine stitching to create the purse flap.

Back pocket.

Pin It Now!

Sew Powerful Purse #180 (2024)

Another purse made to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project . This is my first attempt at using the circular attachment I bought for stitching decorative stitches on my sewing machine. I stitched some decorative stitches out on a white canvas material. After I was finished the white background was just too stark white! So I got out the fabric paint and painted the background, which the paint ended up on the stitched thread too 😬😢!!! The paint color is pretty, but the thread colors don't stand out as well as I would like. A good learning experience so that I will know what to do next time (I did stitch up some more flaps, but they haven't been sewn into purses yet). All in all it turned out good enough to donate. 

Painted flap with circular decorative stitches. Kind of fun to use that circular stitch attachment.

The full flap.

Batik purse body and little pumpkins for the lining. It's pumpkin time of year now too.

 I also stitched the strap in batik fabric with a ribbon down the center.

Back with a slip pocket.

Pin It Now!

The Allure Bag with Decorative Stitches on the Flap

I was contacted to make a custom bag for a woman who has purchased other bags from me before. She wanted the Allure Bag (she bought this Allure bag from me a while ago), but she wanted it to have decorative stitches on the flap like this Fiona's Freeway bag I made that she also bought from me awhile back. The Allure bags that I have made are all made at 85% from the original Allure bag size, because after testing The Allure, I found it to be rather large, but at 85% it is a nice size.

The Allure is a ChrisW Design bag. I have tested bags for Christine for over 10 years now and she has the best instructions and really great way of sewing certain things too. So I did sew a few things like other bags I have tested for Christine. I added a zipper overlay on the inside zipper pocket and I quilted the bottom of the bag too, like Christine now does in some of her bags, but the instructions for the Allure doesn't have a quilted bottom or zipper overlay, but it does have her signature hidden phone pocket on the back of the bag.

 The original Allure measures 13 1/2" at the widest point x 10 1/2" at the base x 10" high x 6" deep, whereas the reduced 85% size I made here is approximately 11 1/4" at the widest point x 8 3/4" at the base x 8 1/2" high x 5" deep.

Decorative machine stitches, rickrack, buttons, crystals and hand French knots.

The back side of the bag. I used purple batik and faux cork (cotton fabric).

First time adding a flip lock closure too. I usually do a magnetic snap, but I got some flip locks on sale and wanted to try it.

I added a divided slip pocket with 2 pen pockets on the sides. The lining is a batik fabric too.

Zipper pocket with a vinyl overlay.

Hidden phone pocket on the back.

Quilted bottom.

View from the side.

Vinyl zipper overlay in pink.

Adjustable strap to wear across body or on shoulder.

She should be receiving this bag by Saturday. I did show her these photos, but there is nothing like seeing it in person.

Pin It Now!

Sew Powerful Purses #183-202 (2023)

I finished these 20 purses to donate to Sew Powerful in December 2023. I am still sewing a few more purses, so I hope to complete several more before the new year begins. I had cut out so many purse kits to have ready to sew during the September Sew-a-thon this year, so I really wanted to finish as many purses as I can before I need to cut more purse kits. 

Here are the 20 purse I completed~

This purse I made using a raw edge technique I came up with. It is heavily quilted and I used tiny scraps, all raw edge batiks on this flap. I couched yarn, added some buttons, and an iridescent material scrap too. I really love making the flaps like this! 

I upcycled denim jeans for the purse body and this is the back of the purse with the front jean pocket. I flipped the flap up so you could see the entire flap, since a bit of it gets hidden on the back when the flap is folded over to the front side.

I also had done some decorative machine stitching down the center of the webbing straps on some purses. I wanted to try doing the stitches to see if it would work and it did! So I stitched up several webbing straps in various colors of webbing and used various variegated thread colors and different stitched designs too as you will se in a few of the purses below.

another upcycled denim purse, including the flap that I made using several scraps of denim in various shades of blue denim and black denim too. 

Another closeup of a decorative stitched webbing strap.

Back of purse also has the front denim pocket for the back.

2 upcycled denim purses here. The one on the left I quilted scraps of denim that was all raw edge to keep it flat as too many denim seams can be a bear to stitch through! Then I added a butterfly that I appliquéd over the quilted denim. It just needed something else and I already had the butterfly appliqué cut out. The purse on the right is patchwork denim scraps sewn with seams and I added some ribbon and even a Levi label!

Closeup of another decorative stitched webbing from the denim purse on the right.

These 2 purse backs have the patch denim pockets added to the back side and I stitched an appliqué heart onto each pocket. 

3 more appliqué flaps of wild animals.

This is a patchwork flap that started with the pentagon shape in the center. Those 3 buttons I stitched on by hand using making a little flower in the buttons with the embroidery floss.

Another patchwork scrappy flap with added heart buttons.

Closeup of another decorative stitch on webbing strap.

These 4 purses are scrappy patchwork and I sewed the flowers in the buttons on all of these as well.

These 3 are patchwork flaps. I added flower shaped buttons that I sewed on 2 of the purse flaps.

Closeup of decorative machine stitches on webbing strap from the one purse below.

Here are 4 purses with an African women print. I used red fabric for the gussets on all 4 purses, since I didn't have enough fabric to use for all the purses of this print. 3 of the purses I had enough to create the front and backs of the purses, but not for the fourth purse, so that body is all red. 

Pin It Now!