Sew Powerful Purses 141-142 for 2026

2 purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project that I made from one red Starbucks apron! One apron pocket had black stains from a Sharpie marker, so I fused embroidered flowers and a heart over the stains to cover the stains and add a bit of bling at the same time.

The flaps are both made using the leftover scraps from cutting the purse body pieces. I covered the flap in tulle and quilted it and then added the rickrack and yarn couching and buttons.

The Starbucks logo I used for the flap lining. I had to piece a couple of pieces of the red apron, so added some rickrack over the seams for additional bling. The embroidered flowers and heart are covering up the Sharpie stains on the apron pocket. The apron pocket became the front pocket without having to sew a separate pocket on top, which made the sewing and cutting a bit faster to do.

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Sew Powerful Purses # 138-140 for 2026

3 purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. One is a large print for the flap and the other 2 are scrappy pieced with add heart appliqués.

I had a fat quarter of this print with the large white & red flowers and I cut 2 pieces to make 2 flaps. This is the one I finished. I had the black print already cut out for the body of the purse and this flap print went well with it so I could finish this purse. I haven't cut out a purse body yet to go with the second flap yet. The second flap shows the flowers of the print differently.

I wanted to use up some appliqué shapes that I had cut out already, so I used these hearts. Some were cut from felted wool sweaters or other felt and the 2 largest hearts are cotton fabric.

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Sew Powerful Purses # 133-137 for 2026

5 purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

I used a 1-inch printed grid to sew the patchwork, which ended up 3/8" square using a full 1/4" seam allowance. Had I used a scant seam allowance these squares would have been 1/2" square. Since I used it as a heart appliqué, the square size didn't matter, but good to keep in mind if I had wanted it a certain size as part of a patchwork block.

Pieced flap with added appliqué flower.

Another pieced flap with added appliqué flower.

Pieced flap with added appliqué flower and a butterfly button.

Pieced flap with added fussy cut flower that I appliquéd.

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Sew Powerful Purse #99 for 2026

This purse was a combined effort of Donna WM & myself. Donna made the purse flap and sent it to me and I sent her a purse flap that I made. Donna finished the purse using the flap I made and I finished the purse using the flap that she made. So I am counting this as one purse, since I made the purse body and the flap for hers and together that equals one purse.

Donna made the flap and I used a polka dot vinyl to make the purse body & strap. The vinyl matches well with the lining she used below.

Donna used this lining fabric for the flap lining and it reminded me of the polka dot vinyl I had, so I decided to use that vinyl for the purse body.

I made the patchwork flap and Donna completed the rest of the purse.

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Sew Powerful Purses #354-358 (for 2025)

2 days left for the Sew-a-thon & fundraiser for Sew Powerful. My goal was to make 80 purses this month, but I have exceeded that by nearly making double that number. I need to cut and sew 4 more purses today and finish by tomorrow in order to double my purse goal and then I will have made 160 purses this month! 🎆🎇 I think I can do that! 

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.

Meanwhile, here are some purses that I have completed. Upcycled denim jeans, folded log cabin quilt blocks on 4 flaps, and added ribbon on one flap.

These are folded log cabin blocks that I set on point and added denim around to create the flap.

Pockets on the fronts of the purses.

One more folded log cabin block and a scrappy denim flap with added ribbon.

2 more denim pockets for the fronts. 

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Sew Powerful Purses #336-338 (for 2025)

3 more purses done during the September Sew-a-thon for Sew Powerful. I am still sewing purses. So far this month I have completed 118 purses! I have more to finish. How many purses will I complete for this month? Every purse I make goes to a girl in Zambia so she can stay in school and not miss any days during her monthly cycle. Sewing is my passion and helping these young ladies is my pleasure. I am so glad that I can use my sewing knowledge and talent to create these purses for these young ladies so they can have a better life. Women helping women is power, kindness, and love. Scroll to the bottom of this post and make please help by making a donation to help fill the purses with the hygiene items needed for these young women. By doing so, you not only help these girls, but the women who sew the reusable pads, laundry soap bar, sew uniforms and more as they are able to have a job with respect and dignity to help their families. Thank you so much!

Back purse on the left I made 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 #330-335 (for 2025)

6 purses finished for Sew Powerful and the Sew-a-thon. 

These are super scrappy flaps with tiny scraps and covered in a gold embossed tulle and quilted.

The purse fronts.

Bee theme scraps and an appliqué house flap.

2 selvage flaps.

Purse fronts.

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:

Pin It Now!

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:

Pin It Now!

Sew Powerful Purses #322-326 (for 2025)

Another 5 purses sewn. All kinds of happy scrappiness.

A long time ago I experimented with making tiny pieced Friendship Stars. Sewing this tiny is harder than sewing larger quilt blocks. I had no idea what to do with them back then. I find things I put away from time to time and came across the stars and knew they needed to be on purse flaps, of course! They sure look good on purse flaps and I hope the 2 girls who receive these purses will love them. The purse bodies are upcycled denim jeans.

All scrappy flaps here.

The fronts of the 3 purses.

And the backs of the purses are also scrappy! I just didn't have enough left of any of the fabrics to create the back sides, so I had to piece together scraps of whatever I thought would work. I kind of like having a scrappy back as well.

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.

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!