Yellow Daisies in the Sky Purse

 

One pocket on the front and two on the back.

Entire interior is lined with pockets.

This time I used a plastic needlepoint canvas to line the bottom.  It is much more flexible than cardboard, but the purse really doesn't need a bottom liner.  It's only purpose seems to be to cover up the bottom seam of the purse and provide an extra layer of protection.  I saw a lady in the supermarket this weekend who had a handmade quilted purse, and the corners of the bottom had holes in it and were frayed.  I could tell that she really loved that purse and wasn't willing to call it too worn to carry just yet.

Purple Roses Purse

One pocket on the front...

Two pockets on the back...

Six pockets on the inside!

That's a record for me.  And they are different sizes.

There is a pocket specifically for a pen!

Do you know how often I dig through my purse for a pen?

Search no more.

I had trouble with my last purse of this design when sewing binding to the inside corners, so I opted not to use the binding on the inside this time.  I tried using my serger for that task, but there were too many layers for it to sew through, so I just did an overedge stitch on my sewing machine.  It's not pretty, but the seams will hold.  

I struggled making the darts on the bottom corners this time, so the bottom insert wouldn't fit.  I don't think the purse even needs that part.  This particular pattern instructs me to use plastic needlepoint canvas for the bottom shelf.  My other tote pattern instructs me to use cardboard.  I've learned that cardboard definitely does not work with this particular purse like it does with the totes.  So, if I get a nicely shaped bottom on any future purses of this model, I'll try the needlepoint canvas option.  Although, I'd much prefer to use that canvas for needlepoint projects instead of wrapping it in fabric and shoving it into the bottom of a purse to make it flat and sturdy.

The other big change I made this time around was to sandwich polyester batting in between the fabrics instead of fleece.  Fleece is more expensive, but easier to work with.  The polyester batting gives the purse more of a quilted look and feel.  However, I had to keep trimming the edges while using the polyester batting in order to get all the layers even enough to apply the binding, and that's why the bottom ended up being too narrow for a hard insert.

Green Leaves with a Plethora of Pockets

I bought a couple of different patterns from the one I'd been using to make my totes, in part because the tissue paper was poked to death by needles and getting fragile, and in part because I wanted to learn new ways of making bags.  This latest purse was made from the Simplicity 8310 pattern.

One pocket on the outside front.

Two pockets on the outside back.

Three pockets on the inside.

I reversed the fabrics for the inside and outside back pockets to  avoid overpowering the purse with green.

As usual, there were a few snags along the way.  I have trouble comprehending pattern directions, so I spend a lot of time reading and re-reading, staring at the diagrams, trying different things, and ripping out seams.  What works best for me is sleeping on it, because I usually wake up in the morning with a clear picture in my head on how I am supposed to assemble it.

For instance, the interior pockets were one long strip.  I noticed that the diagram suddenly showed the one long strip divided into three pockets, but nowhere were there instructions on sewing that pocket.  I thought it was an oversight, until I sewed the front pocket on, and realized that I had sewed right through to the interior strip, instantly dividing it into three pockets.  It's a genius way to save thread, avoid having to measure and draw chalk lines, and consolidate what would have been multiple steps into one.

Perhaps I had the biggest trouble with the bottom corners.  The instructions said to sew darts between the outside dots, and there were many ways to interpret that.  I kept folding and refolding the corners, yet nothing made sense until I slept on it.  This time I made notes along the way, so hopefully I won't make the same mistakes in the future.  The end result was all done correctly.  There was nothing that I did wrong that I couldn't undo.

There are a lot more fine details to this bag, such as the bias tape used to hide seams and allow for a decorative touch.