Let's get Purse-onal

I drew up the pattern for these little purses the other day. Then, while I was at my boot making course on Wednesday night (by the way the boots are coming along very well but, who knew it would take so long to put them together! It’s partially down to the fact that there are way too many people in my class all vying for the teacher’s attention and direction. I’m not sure I’d take another course at LFC because the classes do feel a little over crowded. Anyway, back to Wednesday night.) I found some bits of scrap leather hanging around. I took it home with me and made up these purses.
They have cowboy style pearl snaps and colored stitching for a bit of flair.

I know it's only November but, I am trying to get together an arsenal of goodies for the impending holiday. These would make quite nice little gifts. Even better if I stuff them with some of the jewellery I’ve been making. I’ve spent a bomb at The Bead Shop in Covent Garden recently. Eek.

Foxy.

We've been framed!

I've gone deep into the world of frame bag making. I found some frames that don’t have a nice little metal loop attached to them for your handle. So, now I’m trying to come up with ways to put a handle on and for it to be attractive.

So far I have executed one solution. This would be on the red bag. I’ve used loops, which are also stuck into the frame. I think this works quite well. The handle also feels really nice because it’s wide and has good padding in it.
I’m going to try a few other ideas out like surface mounting the handles and attaching loops into the frame at a point nearer to the hinges.

So stay tuned.

Also, Get Together Craftily is this Sunday at 3pm. 13 Bodney Road, E8. We’ll have stuff together for making Halloween cards, Carving Pumpkins and making Halloween themes tea pot covers.

Foxy.

That'll flat do it!

Recently I bought some bag making supplies from www.u-handbag.com. Lisa also has a blog which has ace instructions on how to make bags. I really love frame bags and have been wanting one for a while, so I bought a silver frame.

It arrived so quickly that I didn’t really have much time to think about what fabric I was going to use and really plot it all out. That didn’t really hold me back though, I was just too excited. So, after rummaging through my fabric I found this nice vintage silver lamee (I’d been saving) and turquoise and white stripe cotton for the inside. (Like a day evening bag.)

I think the bag took about an hour to make.

Amazing!!!!

Anyway, I took it out and the darn strap came off. Err. It's big and I am not the kind of girl to just carry a few small bits in her bag. So, I decided to buy some stronger jump rings to attach the handle to the bag. While I was at it, I also decided to do a little adjusting on the shape of the bag. I gave it a flat bottom.

Then I took it out again. It was doing fine until I started jumping around dancing with it on my shoulder. The strap came off again! Err. So, finally I decided I’d use some fabric to close up the slight gap in the jump ring. I used the littlest bit of fabric and some fabric glue, wrapped it around the gap and it’s been staying together. Yay! And I learned my lesson about dancing with it on.

When Jim came home from his tour and saw it he said “Oh wow, where did that come from?” I said “I made it.” He said, “No way! Really? I can’t believe women have not been running down the street after you asking you where you got your bag from.” Isn’t that super sweet? The haberdasher liked it too and was impressed with my tidy construction. I’m so proud.

Foxy.