Sew Powerful Purse #106 (2025)

I wanted to experiment with cutting curved pieces by stacking some 5-inch charm squares and cutting them into curved pieces. Then I arranged the different fabrics and curves onto a foundation fabric, tacking them with a bit of glue. I then stitched the curves using decorative machine stitches. I pieced some scraps of fabrics at the top and bottom corners to bring it up to the rectangle size needed for the flap. It was a fun experiment and I will try it again someday, but I think I will use prints that are less busy so you can see the decorative stitching a bit better. These were batik charm squares in Christmas prints.

I ran out of the You Look Beautiful labels, so I got a stamp that I can stamp onto fabric scraps to sew on instead. It's a lot cheaper doing that 😉.

Pocket on the back. This black and white print is a light canvas material.
Donating this to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

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Sew Powerful Purses #104-105 (2025)

Last 2 purses for now until I can sew up some more 😉. These, as the others I posted recently use the quilt blocks I got from a free table at a quilt group. Used upcycled denim for the purse bodies too.

Each block set differently on flap.

Front pockets.

Back pockets. 

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Sew Powerful Purses #101-103 (2025)

3 more purses using the quilt blocks I got from someone giving them away at a quilt group. Denim jeans upcycled for the purses bodies too on these.

Donating to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

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Sew Powerful Purses #98-100 (2025)

Over a year ago I saw a stack of quilt blocks on the free table at a quilt group and I grabbed them knowing they would make great looking purse flaps. I have made a few into purses before, but am sewing the rest into purses now. Some had light backgrounds and some had dark backgrounds. When creating the flaps, some I placed with the points of the star vertically and some I placed the opposite direction, as you can see in the photo below. The placement gives the blocks a different look. I have a few more to make with these blocks and each one uses different fabrics for the stars. I made the purse bodies out of upcycled denim jeans.

Donating these to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

Quilt blocks plus added fabric to create the flaps. I set one of the blocks differently from the other 2 quilt blocks. Do you have a preference in the placement of the block?

One front denim jeans pocket provides 2 extra pockets on the front. The other 2 purses I cut the denim jeans out of the leg section to make the front pocket.

On all 3 purses, I left the denim jeans pockets on when I cut the back piece, resulting in instant back pockets.

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Sew Powerful Purses #87-89 (2025)

Here are 3 scrappy pieced purse flaps on these purses that I am donating to Sew Powerful. The one on the left started with a crazy pieced yellow, the middle with a star pieced block and the right one with a Debbie Mumm print. As soon as I use up a few scraps to make the flaps, I end up with even more scraps after cutting out the purse bodies. It is a never ending process. When the scraps start taking over, it's time to piece them together to create scrappy quilts to donate to use up the scraps faster, but then it starts all over again with scraps from cutting out purses, quilts or other bags.😜

3 scrappy purse flaps that are all different.

Back pockets on purses.

I love being able to use up scrap fabrics to create these purses to help teenage girls in Zambia to allow them to stay in school all year, so they do not miss any school while they are in their monthly periods. Making purses changes their lives for the better. Read about it here.

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Sew Powerful Purses #306-310 (2024)

5 more purses donated to Sew Powerful. A scrappy batik purse and 4 purses made from pieced quilt blocks (that I got on a freebie table at a group I went to earlier this year).

I love sewing these scrappy pieced flaps, especially in batik fabric scraps 😉.

Purse body is also batik fabric.

An added slip pocket on the back.

I scored a stack of quilt blocks someone made and got rid of. Some had dark backgrounds and some had light backgrounds. All the stars were different fabrics. I added some scraps at the side corners and the top to increase it to the flap size needed. And buttons in the center hexagons.

One upcycled denim jean purse, the rest are cotton fabric.

The jean purse I added a back jean pocket for the back pocket on the purse.

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Sew Powerful Purses #242-245 (2024)

Four more purses to donate to Sew Powerful. Sewn selvages, scrappy flaps, pieced quilt blocks, appliqué, corduroy purse bodies and quilting cotton purse body too.

Selvage flap with star appliqué over a mini appliqué pocket shape. I had a lot of patriotic fabric selvages, so put them all together in this selvage flap. I really love how this one turned out!

Selvage flap.

I made the fabric strap and pieced it with 2 fabrics.

Slip pocket and purse body made using quilting cotton fabric.

Scrappy pieced flap.

Front pocket and flap up.

Corduroy back slip pocket.

Another purse made using one of the quilt blocks I scored at quilt group months ago. I added a few strips of fabric to make it flap size and buttons for bling.

That dragonfly fabric I won in a nametag drawing at quilt group months ago. I hadn't won the nametag drawing in years and years. It seemed right to use that fabric on this purse, since I also scored the pieced quilt blocks on the freebie table.

Another slip pocket in corduroy.

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Sew Powerful Purses #235-238 (2024)

Four more purses to donate to Sew Powerful. 3 of these purse flaps were quilt blocks that I picked up for free several months ago on the freebie table at the quilt group. As soon as I saw them I thought purse flaps! There were several quilt blocks in each stack I got, so I will be sharing the others too another day. They sure made nice flaps. The last one was an appliqué I made quite a while ago.

I got a stack of these quilt blocks all in different prints, some with dark backgrounds like this one and some were light backgrounds. I added a few scraps to bring them up to the flap size and then made the purse body out of corduroy. Added a button with a stitched flower for a bit of bling.

Back slip pocket.

These purse flaps were in another stack of quilt blocks I got. They were all pinwheel quilt blocks in various colors. Again, I added scraps to make them large enough for the flaps and double stacked buttons to give them that pinwheel look.

I also used this corduroy for the purse bodies.

This was an appliqué that I made a while back. I found it and decided it too needed to become a purse flap.

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