Sew Powerful Purses #473-476 for 2025

Four more purses, 3 have Hawaiian print purse bodies.

I added a little fabric from the purse body and the flap lining in this scrappy purse flap to tie it together.

I also had a couple pieces of scraps from the purse body to add to this purse flap as well as the next 2 purses.

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Sew Powerful Purses #469-472 for 2025

Four purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project with Hawaiian print fabric for the purse body, along with scrappy flaps and appliqué flowers on each. I used a scrap piece from the purse body fabric in each flap. The flowers I cut from my die cuts.  

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Sew Powerful Purses #465-468 for 2025

4 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

I used a die cut flower and die cut circle to make this appliqué flower, along with decorative machine stitches.

These 2 are super scrappy flaps using the tiniest pieces of fabrics, covered in tulle and quilted. Added jumbo rickrack and small pieces of a ribbon (the teacup & laugh were cut from ribbons), and a few buttons.

Stenciled flap with texture painted background.

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Sew Powerful Purses #460-464 for 2025

5 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project are done.

I added an appliqué bee to this scrappy pieced flap using bee & honey fabrics.

Front of purse and flap lining.

I used some scraps of denim fabrics that upcycled from some denim jeans to create the flap, and then added the flower appliqué. The fun decorative stitches were machine stitched with variegates thread.

Front of purse material was a fabric that my mom gave me more than a decade ago. I made a couple of crossbody bags and a travel bag using this material and now I am using it up making these purses. It is a beautiful large floral print in my favorite colors.

Another scrappy flap with a flower. I pieced together webbing scraps to make the strap long enough. Ribbon was sewn over the joined webbing.

Appliqué flower on another scrappy flap.

This is another scrappy flap with appliqué flower. The flowers on these last 3 purse flaps were made from an old tie dyed rainbow tank top that I rarely wore, so I cut a lot of flowers out of that knit tank top to use as appliqué flowers for these purses.

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Sew Powerful Purses #458-459 for 2025

Here are a couple purses with scrappy flaps and an added appliqué flower.

I like using large buttons when I have them for the center of the flower.

The lining of the flap is vinyl. This exterior fabric I have had for maybe 2 decades? It was about time to use it!

This exterior fabric was given to me by my mom at least 15 years ago. There was a lot of yardage and back then I made 2 cross body bags and a large travel bag with it and I still had plenty of the fabric left. I decided to make a few purses using this fabric print like this one. More purses using this fabric will be shared soon. I love the bold floral print and the colors too. 

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Sew Powerful Purses # 444-457 for 2025

I had some panel prints of baby wild animals (chimpanzees, lions, tigers and zebras) and I also had some animal skin prints as well as a jungle of animals print, some zebra print fabric and a wild cats print too that I used up to make the purse bodies for these purses. So glad I finally found a home for all those prints. These 14 purses will be heading to Sew Powerful and then to Zambia to be given to 14 girls so that they can stay in school, as the purses will be filled with monthly hygiene items they need for them to be able to stay in school all month, every month. I hope they love these, as I had fun making them. Those sweet baby animals make me smile 🦁🐯🦓😁

3 sweet baby chimpanzees.

The jungle print I used for the exterior.

2 lion cubs.

The animals prints I used for the exterior.

3 baby tigers.

More animal prints for the exteriors.

2 more tiger cubs.

4 zebras.

I had 2 zebra prints for the exteriors and a multi skin print and a giraffe print.

If you look closely at most of the straps, I pieced webbing scraps together to make the straps long enough. I covered the joins with some ribbon. I pieced other scraps of webbing together too for some future purse straps. That took me all morning to turn scraps of webbing into quite a few purse straps, but I am so glad I did that as the scraps of webbing were piling up. I need to stay on top of that as I get enough scraps of webbing, rather than let them pile up for too long. 

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A Few Practical Pouches

A friend who is so sweet and kind sent me an Etsy gift card for my birthday in November. A dollar for each year I have been here on Earth, and no I won't tell you how long that is, but quite a while, 😄. I told her she my angel or fairy because she has sent me many things before like fabric and webbing, etc. for making the purses that I donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project (which she is also supporting and donating to and how we met online). 

I bought 3 things from the Etsy gift card: a stamp that says, Handmade with Love in New Mexico, that has the shape of the state of New Mexico with a heart on it. I wanted to use that to stamp on the gift cards for the cards that I place into the pocket of the purses that I donate to Sew Powerful. I could also stamp on fabric for a label for the purse, but I do have a stamp with my name on it that I am using for that. The next thing I bought was a pdf pattern from Rosie & David patterns called Practical Pouches, which is what I am sharing today in this blog post. And the third item is some purple denim material to make purses for the girls in Zambia. The color of the denim was a bright pinkish purple on the computer, but I received a dull lavender shade and was a bit disappointed as I loved the color on the computer screen. I will still use use it for the purses, as I am not making the purses for me, although had it been the correct color I saw, I would have made myself a small bag. I did review the item and let them know I was disappointed as the color was completely different from what they showed. Thank you so much Karen for the gift card!

Here are a few Practical Pouches that I made. Size XXL, XL, and 2 large pouches. The pattern includes 6 sizes, 5 with 2 zipper pockets and the mini size has one zipper pocket. All have clear vinyl on the front pocket. I have one of the each of the other sizes cut out and ready to sew up, except that I ran out of double-sided basting tape, which is an important part of making these pouches, so I ordered more from someplace on Etsy and hopefully it will arrive this week or next. Meanwhile, I am sewing purses. 

Some of the fabrics that I used for making these purses also were given to me by Karen, my Sew Powerful sewing fairy/angel! I thought that large floral print belonged on the XXL pouch, since it was a large print and it needed a project to show of the beauty of the print. I used some Renaissance Ribbon on the XL size with the French wording, bicycle and flowers print and that ribbon (along with more ribbon in other prints and sizes was from Karen too). I thought that ribbon was perfect for the XL pouch I made. The other pouches, I used a glitter ribbon. The ribbon is needed to cover the zipper tape and join the 2 zippers together.

This is the XXL size and this size is great for storing a pattern in the back zip pocket. I have my knitting instructions in that pocket currently as I am knitting a sweater. This size is so handy for any project to store the instructions or templates in.

Another look at the XXL with 2 sizes of my circular knitting needles that I am using to knit the sweater. I can also place my other tools that I use in this pocket too.

The large sizes are on the top and bottom and the XL in the middle. Most of the sizes of these pouches go up in size gradually until you get to the XXL and that size as you saw in the photos jumps in size a lot. The center pouch, the XL was the first one I made and I zigzagged stitched the binding. The other I decided to hand sew on like a quilt binding to make it look neater from both sides. Rosie straight stitches hers.

I had to make some modifications to make these pouches work because the pattern calls for a 4.5 zipper, which is the same size tape width as the size 5 zippers that I use, so I thought I could use what I have. What I discovered after making the XL size is that the difference in a 4.5 and 5 size zipper isn't the width of the zipper tape, but rather the size of the zipper teeth! 4.5 zipper teeth are narrower and looks like a #3 zipper, except for the #3 has a narrower 1-inch width zipper tape and the 4.5 (and #5) zipper tape is a 1.25" width tape. At first, I couldn't understand why my pouch wasn't quite aligning correctly, but then looking closer at Rosie's pouches, I realized that was the difference between the 4.5 & 5 sizes. So I adjusted the next pouches I cut out a bit higher, so I could lower the zipper down a bit lower to fit. I still had to trim excess off the bottom after I sewed the second zipper, but it wasn't much and it worked. By allowing more height, I wasn't losing the height when sewing the second zipper in place. Okay, I know that probably doesn't make sense to you unless you make one of these pouches, but keep in mind if you do make one and use a #5 zipper you will need to adjust the height a smidge or lose a smidge in height. Oh, and #3 zippers won't work at all as the tape is too narrow.

Oh, and I also made modifications to use cotton fabric only. I added interfacing as well. Rosie suggests waterproof canvas or ripstop nylon.

The video instruction is free to watch. The pdf you need for the pouch sizes/templates. The pdf is on sale 20% off for 2 more days!

I will share the other sizes I make once I get my double-sided tape.

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