Sew Powerful Purses # 158-159 for 2026

These 2 purses were made by using a small fussy cut panel (the elephants) and then I appliquéd the elephants onto a fabric square on point and hand sewed tiny rickrack around it. There are 5 African countries each with a different animal. I wanted to mimic the perforated postage stamp look of the print panel (see 2nd photo below). In order to use the country/animal, I had to cut the rickrack looking perforated part of the print or lose using most of the countries/animals. I was able to cut 81 total animals, with one elephant that I had to trim off the partially printed Congo & 7 cents because it was on the end and I could only save the elephant part. 

Here are the first 2 completed purses I finished. Others will slowly be made or I will save the kits I made to sew up in September during the Sew Powerful annual Sew-a-thon. 

This fabric was given to me by my good friend, Tara. You can see what I mean about the rickrack parts that I had to cut on them to divide the sections and if I pieced the countries/animals, it would have been lost in a seam anyhow, so I appliquéd instead and added my own rickrack to give it a similar look. Thanks Tara for the fabric! I love that Zambia is one of the African countries in this print, since the purses I make go to the girls in Zambia. The others are nice too.

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Sew Powerful Purses #410-413 (for 2025)

4 scrappy purse flaps with embossed metallic tulle over the flap and quilted. These were completed last month during the Sew-a-thon for Sew Powerful Purse Project.

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Sew Powerful Purses #376-385 (for 2025)

10 purses made during the September Sew-a-thon for Sew Powerful Purse Project. I bought a quilt pattern at a quilt show over a year ago and used just the wool appliqué flowers and hand embroidery part of the pattern to make these 9 flaps. I added strips of fabrics around the handstitched sections to make the flap to the correct size. These took time to make, but I enjoy hand stitching, so I didn't mind. I also made one Southwest bear appliqué flap using the same blue exterior body fabric as the rest.

Some of the quilt blocks had little flowerpots, which you could buy little flowerpot buttons for extra if you wanted to add them. I decided to use some scraps of cork material for the flowerpots instead.

The flowerpot on the center purse I used a wooden thimble shaped button for the flowerpot. This is what I wanted to use for them all, and I thought I had several thimble buttons, but I only had one. The button came in a variety package of other sewing related themed buttons. The other button shapes I got 2-3 of each button, but only one thimble in the package. I couldn't find find any affordable thimble shaped buttons anywhere online, so chose to use the flowerpot template and cork to make the rest. The place that sold the pattern had flowerpot buttons, but the shipping would have cost me more than the buttons and the button were already quite pricey for such tiny buttons.

Southwest bear fetish flap.

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Sew Powerful Purses #362-375 (for 2025)

Happy October! I love the Autumn months with the cooler weather and pumpkins, the smell of pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and other spices, the fall leaves in a variety of colors, and pinecones. I am not a huge Halloween fan, like most, but I do love seeing the various Halloween decorations around. I just prefer natural Autumn things. 

These 14 purses were made during the Sew-a-thon for Sew Powerful, which has now ended, but you can donate anytime in any amount year round as well. The Sew-a-thon was a success for me! I made 160 purses and received donations way above my goal, so thank you all for supporting me in my effort! The goal for Sew Powerful was not met, but they did receive quite a lot of donations. They received about 4/5ths of their goal. 

I shared one purse using this African mask fabric print recently, so here are the rest of them that I made using that fabric.

The flap lining here I had painted with a stencil awhile back. It was too light for the flap as it could get dirty too quickly, so I used this for the lining. The white fabrics were scraps I pieced together first and then stenciled with flowers. I like the stencil, so I need to find a better background fabric so I can use it on the exterior front next time.

I took this photo of a hot air balloon flying over my house on September 30th. This Saturday starts the annual Balloon Fiesta. The fiesta is a 9 day event in Albuquerque. I will be seeing lots of balloons of all shapes flying in the sky. I see balloons all year long, but the most is in October for the fiesta and during the cooler weather to get the lift the balloons need.

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Sew Powerful Purses #157-158 (2025)

2 more purses donated to Sew Powerful Purse Project. Using up more scraps and upcycled denim jeans for purse bodies.

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Sew Powerful Purses #154-156 (2025)

3 More Sew Powerful purses to donate. I loved using up some of my fabric scraps to make these purse flaps. Paired with denim jeans that I upcycled into to purse bodies.

Scrappy purse flaps.

Denim jeans that were upcycled into these purses.

Back side all with pockets.

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Patchouli Moon Studio~ Sew Powerful Purse #108 (2025)

Scrappy flap with upcycled denim jeans for the purse body. Donating this to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

I love using up scraps to create the purse flap. I also wanted to use up some small squares that I cut from yardage that had sweet prints like this basket of flowers. Other squares on the same fabric yardage are a few different hearts, gift wrapped presents, various single flowers, coffee pot with cup and saucer, plates of sweet desserts like a slice of cake and a cupcake. They all have the colors like this basket of flowers with orange, pink, white and a touch of purple in some. I was able to make quite a lot of purse flaps using those square prints along with fabric scraps or selvages. I used up most of my bag of selvages just making those flaps! Yay!

Upcycling denim jeans is a great way to use up jeans that were given to me by hubby and daughter. I have some jeans of my own that I will upcycle one day too, but I wanted to use up the ones I have been given first.

Back pocket.

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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 #76-77 for 2025

I made 2 purses to donate to Sew Powerful. The one on the left is the Intermediate purse body with the beginner flap that I scrappy pieced, while the one on the right is the Beginner purse body and beginner flap with a quilt block on the flap. I hadn't made the beginner purse body in a few years and wanted a true in life comparison side-by-side. What I found was the beginner purse body appears to be slightly taller than the intermediate purse. What's the difference between the purse styles? The Intermediate purse has a full gusset to create the depth of the purse, while the Beginner style has boxed corners to create the depth. The pieces are cut different measurements too. Unless I did something wrong, I don't really understand why the beginner purse is taller? The flap on the intermediate always seemed to be longer than the beginner flap too, and this could be the reason why. After sewing the beginner style again, I still much prefer the intermediate with the gusset. I find it easier for me to sew and those boxed corners are rather small (3/4" cut squares) and a bit more fiddly to do. Plus, when I sew the gusset, it is one continuous seam from the top side to the other top side, so I don't have to sew the sides and stop and sew the bottom and stop and sew the boxed corners and stop as I do with the beginner style. I like the one continuous seam on each side. But each to their own preference and sewing skills. I also find adding a pocket on the back (or even inside) is much easier with a gusset as I can just sew the pocket into the seams on the sides and bottom and not have to sew a pocket that I need to to turn and then topstitch in place, like on the beginner style.

Here they both are:

Intermediate purse on left and Beginner purse on right, both with Beginner style flaps.

I pieced webbing scraps together with ribbon covering the joins on both purses.

Added back pocket to the intermediate purse on left.

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Sew Powerful Purses #194 for 2024

Another purse to donate to Sew Powerful. I had one more piece of the Paris fabric (I shared 2 purses with this fabric recently) and again I made the body out of  upcycled denim jeans. 

The back of the purse I used the front denim jean pocket, giving an extra pocket on back.

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Sew Powerful Purse #192 (2024)

Trying something new on this purse flap. I wanted words on the flower petals, but I don't have an embroidery machine, so I couldn't embroider the words directly onto the petals. I didn't want to hand embroider them on either. So I wrote them on white fabric with an acrylic paint pen, then fused to the flower petals and stitched around the white to hold them in place. The white makes it easy to read the words, but it is also a bit stark as well. Maybe if I try another one I will use a pale color of whatever the flower color is, so I would have used a pale turquoise for this flower if I had thought of it before. After I stitched the words on, the shape that was left in the center happened to be a pentagon, so I used a pentagon for the center of the flower. A few added crystals for a bit of bling completes the flap.

The body is another denim jean upcycle. I used the front jean pocket on the back of the purse this time. 

Donating this purse to Sew Powerful.

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