The Purse that ALMOST Won!!

I found a picture of the most adorable purse on the internet.  It's from a site Bloom & Blossom, and she called it a "Frilly Dilly Purse".  She is from New South Wales, Australia, and I just know that she had the greatest accent ever!  If you are into sewing or especially quilting, so visit Bloom.

Anyway, back to this purse thing - I've been making purses this year for Christmas presents for my teenage daughters, and also for my nieces and thought, "wow, how cool are those!".

I started out with my workhouse, go to Kwik Sew pattern #3312.  If you haven't seen my other post about making purses, this pattern takes ONE PIECE!!  Not that I didn't like the pattern Bloom has, just that I already have this one, and I know it.  We are friends so to speak! 

Then of course, I had to choose my fabric.  I really loved the black & white look in Bloom's picture (I'm a picture kind of a girl) and so that's what I went with for daughter #1.  That and the fact that she just got a really lovely black pea coat a couple of weeks ago.



Black & White fabric



Black Purse

And that's where this started going downhill.  The black fabric and the black thread... when did I start going blind??  And where do all the little dust bunnies come from that attach themselves to this black fabric?  Anyway, I cut the patterned fabric for the ruffles about 6 1/2 inches wide - a little wider than I guestimated Bloom's ruffles to be, giving me a finished strip 3" wide.  I ironed them and then sewed a straight stitch down the center on my longest stitch setting, and then I pulled threads like mad to make the ruffles.  My sister in law laughed.
 And the plan was to attach one of each of the 5 ruffled strips to each side and then sew the purse together.  It started out ok - with the first ruffle that is.  Then when I went to add the second ruffle, I couldn't decide how close to go.  This is the point when I should have gone back to the computer and looked at how Bloom had done her's.  That of course would have been too easy!

And this is where I almost gave up.  Where the purse almost won.  The ruffles were making me crazy.  Too close together, I decided, but too late.  Also not enough strips.  I chose 5, and probably should have had 7.   This is also the point where I almost went and got daughter #1 to ask her if she liked it.  I probably had about 3 hours invested here, and did I mention sometimes I have a.d.d.??  But I kept going, and a pot of coffee and another hour later, here it is....

I am totally in love.  I almost hope she doesn't like it, that way it can be mine, all mine!! (insert evil laugh).  No, only kidding, I hope she loves it.  Now to take what I've learned and go start on daughter #2's John Deere frilly dilly purse.  Stay tuned!!