Sew Powerful Purses #200-204 for 2026

5 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. I completed over 200 purses now and I have cut out probably another 200+ purse kits to sew for the rest of the year. The September Sew-a-thon and Fundraiser are coming up in September, so I will be ready to sew those kits I have waiting then. The Fundraiser part starts in August-September and the sewing part is in September only. I wonder how many purses I can complete in the month of September this year? Last year I was one of the top ten purses makers, completing 160 purses for the month of September. Can I top last year's number? I hope so.

 I pained the background using a stencil and fabric paint and quilted the flap too. I fussy cut the dress form from a piece of fabric and appliquéd it in place. I had a gold plastic sewing needle and pair of scissors that I stitched on by hand for added bling.

Another X-Block quilt block with added fabrics around it to make it large enough for the flap. I shared one of these recently and this is another one I had made into a flap.

I don't recall where I got this fabric, but thought it was perfect for a flap. I had to cut the height of the fabric down a few inches. The fabric showed their entire skirts, making it too tall to use for the flap. 

I used a quilt block I had and a 4-patch quilt block I had and sewed scraps around to create these two flaps. 

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Sew Powerful Purses #192-195 for 2026

Four purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. Three scrappy pieced with appliqué flowers and one with stencil painted background. 

I used a Southwest stencil to paint the background. I added an appliqué flower and an embroidered flower patch over the appliqué flower. Quilted with serpentine stitch.  

Scrappy pieced background with Echinacea appliqué flower. 

Circle  appliqué flower (see tutorial under Tip of the Morning Tuesday).

Lining that matches my circle appliqué flower.

Another scrappy pieced background with Echinacea flower appliqué.

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Sew Powerful Purses #176-177 for 2026

One purse flap with a painted stencil background and the other flap scrappy pieced. Both have flowers that were circles first and then I cut into flowers and appliquéd them to the flaps. Check my Tip of the Morning Tuesday page for the tutorial How to Make Flowers from Circles.

Donating these 2 purses to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

I painted the background using this stencil and Shiva Painstiks. 

I am trying to only use this fabric for the flap lining of purse flaps that have circles cut into flower shaped appliqué, since this print looks just like my flowers cut from circles. I used this lining on both flap linings.

I sewed scraps around the hexagon shape in the center.

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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 #503-505 for 2025

Another 3 Sew Powerful Purses completed.

I love this stencil to use for the flaps. Painted texture background.

This African fabric print, given to me by my fabric fairy, was perfect to use for the purse body. I made the flap months ago, so when I received this fabric, I knew this would be the perfect flap to pair with the African print fabric.

Some patchwork I made a while back made a nice flap, along with the appliqué flower.

I painted this piece of fabric a long time ago with circle stencils. I decided to quilt the flap and fussy cut the hot air balloon to appliqué onto the flap. The bright red solid fabric I had just enough to make one purse body to go with this purse flap 😉. It made a winning combination for this purse.

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Sew Powerful Purses #494-497 for 2025

4 painted stenciled purse flaps of African woman and painted texture backgrounds. Donating to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

These are both African fabric prints.

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Sew Powerful Purse #202 (2024)

Another purse to donate to Sew Powerful. So far all the stenciled flaps that I have made need to be lower on the flap! I had eyeballed where the flap folds over to the back, but apparently I didn't eyeball enough! At least I have been consistent and all the stencils need to be lower on the flap when I stencil them again.😜

Another stencil that I need to lower down on the flap more so her head doesn't get cut off for the future flaps that I stencil.

Front with pocket and the yummy looking cupcake flap lining!

Flap opened out so you can see the entire flap.

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Sew Powerful Purse #201 (2024)

Another stenciled flap, but this time it is a hand with rings on her thumb and finger, wearing a bracelet while holding a string of beads. I painted the dots for the background and then added the stencil. Crystals I added in the center of the string of beads.

With the flap opened out like this you can see the entire stencil.

Donating this purse to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

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Sew Powerful Purse #200 (2024)

Here she is the 200th purse finished to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project for this year! Yay!!!

Here is another, but different stenciled flap of an African woman.  As with the others that I posted and shared the past few days, this one was also up too high on the flap and cutting off the top of her head, so it too will be lowered down when I stencil more. I was afraid of lowering it too much this time as it would cut into her neck too much. These stencil might be a bit too large for the flaps, but I love them and there won't be any other purses made like this! At least I haven't seen anyone else use stencils at all on the purses that I have seen at least.

Buttons & crystals for some bling.

Front of purse and flap lining.

I laid the purse out so you can see the entire flap here.

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Sew Powerful Purses #198-199 (2024)

2 more painted, stenciled, African women on the purse flaps. I made these before realizing the top of the heads would be folded back and cut off a bit, so next time I paint the stencils, I will be lowering the stencils down a bit on these and some other stencils I have too. I need to measure them and mark on the side of the stencil so that I know in the future where to place them. They still look good this way, but I want to see the entire head next time.

Added buttons and crystals for some girly bling!

Fronts of each purse.

Backs of each purse with pockets. The pocket on the right I stitched the ribbon and the yarn over the seams, since I had to piece the pocket to make it large enough. I hope it doesn't look too odd? At least it will be worn against the girl's body and not seen, except by her.

Two more purses to be donated to Sew Powerful. The next purse I share will be the 200th purse I completed for this year! But I have a lot more purses that I have made and am still making, so the end of the year total could exceed 300 purses this year if I get more sewn and completed by then.🤞

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