Sew Powerful Purse #109-111 (2024)

Last year I thought I had sewn up all the flowers and quotes from this panel fabric that I had, to make the purses for the flaps, but I found these 2 in my bag of kits and so I finished them. I think that is the last purses with these flaps (but don't quote me on that)😄!!!

I love these panels, but if they were a bit smaller, I could have used up more scraps of fabric and the top of the panel would be seen from the front instead of the top folding over to the back. I could have not sewn any fabric at the very bottom I suppose too, but I liked to frame the panel with my scraps. I am sure the girls who receive them will be thrilled. 

Two more finished. *Note: I published this post on June 20, 2024, but for some reason Blogger published this with the date of June 7th, 2024 instead, so it got buried in my past posts and no one saw it. Weird! This messed up my count of these purses being numbered out of order in my postings, but I added these to the Sew Powerful Purses page in the correct order. Blogger has been doing some different and strange things lately.😕🤷

Back slip pocket too.

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Sew Powerful Purses #92-93 (2024)

Still sewing purses from the kits I cut out last year! I forgot about some of these purse kits or flaps I had finished as I grab a kit to sew and complete the purse. 

Batik fabric with an appliqué heart in black fabric.

The fabrics in this purse were donated to me. I made the scrappy fabric heart as a hanging notecard for the girl who receives this purse.

I added a slip pocket on the back of the purse. Back of heart with stamped affirmations.

African children print cut in a hexagon with scraps sewn all around for the flap. I think this was the last piece of that fabric I cut into a hexagon. I made several purses from this border print scrap that was given to me.

The lining fabric was also given to me by the same woman who gave me the African print border fabric (the hexagon on the flap). I made the scrappy fabric heart as a hanging notecard for the girl who receives this purse.

Back of purse and stamped notecard with affirmations.

2 more Sew Powerful purses are complete to help change 2 girl's lives for the better. Yay!

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Sew Powerful Purses #80-91 (2024)

Here are more purses, mostly in browns. To me browns are rather boring, so I do try to add some other colors to the flap. I received a lot of brown fabric donations, so wanted to use them, but I am going to only do more colorful purses now as the girls prefer brighter colors and so do I! 😄 I might have some purse kits in browns that I cut already that could be buried in the large bags that I stack the kits in, so of course I will sew those, but I am not cutting out anything that is not colorful anymore. Perhaps the brown ones will go to the mom's or caregiver of the girls?

Here are 12 more finished purses:

There was a white ghost line on the front and back of the purse, so I stitched a decorative stitch on some brown ribbon and sewed it to the purse. It adds a nice contrast and interest, so I may just stitch on more plain ribbons to add a decorative touch, even if I don't need to cover up something😆.

This is the back of the purse.

I love stitching the buttons creating little flowers on them.

The running animals was near the selvage of the fabric had mostly African animals (see the first purse at the very top), so I wanted to use these animals too. I used them in the purse below on the front and this is the little part of the flap seen from the back.

The animals here with the above photo showing them on the back of the flap.

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The Girl Who Received the Purse I Made

If you recall, I mentioned that Sew Powerful was doing a fundraiser for 20 people (which they opened it up to some more and had 39 total people participate) to have the purse that they made to be hand delivered to one of the girls in Zambia and that we would get a photo taken of the girl who received our purse. The team just got back from the trip, so we will be receiving a photo in the mail in a couple of weeks, but we were also emailed the photo so we could see it now.

This is the girl who received the purse I made. I was thrilled to see a girl with a purse that I made and this was the next best thing to going to Zambia and giving some purses to girls myself. A few of the others have posted the photos of the girls holding their purses on the Sew Powerful Facebook page too. I hope the rest of them share their photos too. 

When you sew for charity, rarely do you ever get any feedback from the recipient. I have never seen a photo or heard anything from the person who received the item (a quilt or purse) that I have made. I certainly don't expect to see or hear anything, but it would be awesome just to know what that person thought. Those volunteers who hand out such items hear so many wonderful things, but those words never get back to the maker. So to finally make a connection and see the girl who got one of my purses means so much to me! I am sure that she wonders about me who made the purse as well?

I do know her first name, but will not share it here. I will think of her and all her classmates now and in the future as I continue to sew purses to donate to this wonderful charity that helps keep the girls in school all month, every month to better themselves with an education. There are millions of girls each year waiting for a purse, won't you help by sewing some purses or making a donation to Sew Powerful to help fill the purses with the needed hygiene supplies? 

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Sew Powerful Purses #63-79 (17 more purses)

I have lots of purse kits cut out ready to sew when I want to sew. Over the Memorial Day weekend I finished up these purses, most were in reds or reds and blues, so perfect color choice for the holiday. 

The purses with the red, white and blue plaid print has a bit of a waffle texture like a kitchen towel, so those purses made really sturdy purses. That fabric was a donation fabric, in fact most of the fabrics I used in these purses were donated, except for a few of the scraps.

Flap lining with label I add to all the purses I make.

I don't know why some of the photos get out of order when I add them to my blog posts😕. This is a closeup of the translucent button for the purse that is below the next purse below. Just too much work to have to delete and add photos again in the proper order 😜I love how you can see the star print through this button.

This is purse with the translucent button I showed a closeup of 2 photos above.

I had some small cowboy/Southwest panels on a large fabric, so I cut out this hat and made the flap.

Another photo out of order 😛! Two photos below shows the purse front. I wanted to show the back pocket I added to this purse and some of the others I did add a pocket as well, if I had enough fabric to do so.

The flap lining belonging to the purse below.

This was another small panel from that fabric cut the cowboy/cowgirl hat out of. There are a few different horses on that fabric of panels and some hats, boots, bison, cattle too. I don't I will use the horses on more purses, but probably not the bison or cattle or even the cowboy on a horse, as those aren't very girly looking.

I didn't have any more fabric for a back pocket so I added a blue fabric instead. The front of the purse is below.

I tried using scraps to make a wonky star and this was the best one I made, but still not great. After adding fabrics around it though it turned out to be a nice purse flap.

The back side of the the purse below and the back side of the fabric heart notecard that I have enclosed in the purse. I made hundreds of these notecards last year and just finished the remaining ones I had. Those were a lot of work to make, so rethinking how or if I will make more notecards. Other people make just notecards, so might have them make the notecards when I use up the rest of the paper cards I am stamping now. That stamping was supposed to save me time, but that seems to take even more time than sewing!😄

This is the front of the purse and notecard from above photo.

Back of purse with added pocket. Front is below.

Here is the front side of the purse.

This flap was made with the leftover scraps I had after making a custom tote last year.

 

I have more purses I finished that I will share soon. Plus, I am sewing more too. Until next time...

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