Summer Purse

By Vicky Nardone

 

Only one more day until the weekend.  I can't wait, especially since I have a 12:30 am work call tonight.

Last weekend's project was another purse.  I used the same pattern:

Instead of making the smaller B View purse this time I made the A View purse.  See my first attempt at a purse here.  I made several adjustments to this pattern the second time around which I think made for a much better purse.  As you can see from the picture above, I used a simplicity 2830 pattern.  I saw this at JoAnns for like $2.00 and after not having sewn anything for the past 20 years, I decided it was time to get back into it.  I should probably do a little more research on my patterns in the future though because every single review on this pattern I found online said it was terrible and confusing.

Anyway, the adjustments I made the second time around were as follows:

• Created a lining for the inside of the purse by cutting an extra piece of the main purse piece on the blue fabric.  I actually did this on both purses because I think the purse would be really flimsy without it.  I think if I make another one, I'd use interfacing as well to give it a little bit of extra stiffness.
• The purse straps on my first purse were a little flimsy so I cut the straps at 1.5 times the width this time to add a little bit of bulk.  I also cut four pieces of the strap instead of the recommended three because I thought the straps were a little short on my original.
• I also changed how I cut things on the fold.  I put the bottom of the purse pieces against the fold instead of one of the sides because it saved a step of sewing up the bottoms.
• Also, instead of making a top for the purse with a zipper, I left it open and just put in a snap.  The top of the purse was the most difficult part last time so as a newbie, I avoided it and I think it came out a lot cleaner with the snap.
• I added two pockets on the inside for storing my cell phone and other knick knacks.

 It's definitely not perfect and I'm still learning things as I go along, but I do feel like it came out a lot better than my first attempt.

 In case you're wondering about all of the artsy shots, I asked Matt to help me with the photographs because I was having a hard time getting something I liked and he started taking all the crazy angles.