A couple of weeks ago I happened to be looking at the Cotton & Cloud shop and spotted one of their purse kits in the sale. I felt this was a sign and promptly bought it. (I also bought some yummy Japanese fabric but don't tell anyone, especially not my bank manager)
This purse kit contained all I needed to make a pretty little cosmetics case. With the exception of glue and thread. I just so happened to have both of those things already in my great craft cupboard of joy.
The pattern for the kit is downloaded from the website, which means you can print it time and time again, if you want to remake the pattern using your own fabric. I may well do this, as I happen to have this yummy Japanese fabric lying around (ahem).
The kit took about 40 mins to make, which shows how much my sewing is improving. The first time I tried a purse kit it took an afternoon. I think the deciding factor this time was a handy little tool, that I also bought from Cotton & Cloud, a little while ago. It's a Hand Held Purse Inserting Tool, which is a fancy name for a bent and flattened piece of metal with a wooden handle. But I tell you what, this simple tool really makes it easier to do the hardest part of purse making - get the fabric inside the frame.
So here is the result of my little spending spree. One finished purse.
It is lovely fabric. My favorite part is on the other side. Its the big creamy flower.
I was really sad that I couldn't see to get more of the flower on the side of the purse. This is the danger with kits, you only get a small piece of fabric, which makes fussy cutting a bit tricky.
I've been quite cunning with my photography and you can't really tell, but I inserted the purse into the frame in a manner that could correctly be called "not quite straight". I lined up the curved edge with the purse frame and obviously didn't judge it correctly. I think next time I will actually start with lining the seams up with the hinges. The glue it seems, sets quite quickly.
Because of the slight wonkiness of this purse, I've decided to keep it all to myself (maybe it was a subconscious sabotage???) as I only want to give away presents that I'm happy with. However, I do like this little purse, and have only to decide what to use it for - maybe it will actually get use as a cosmetics purse, as the pattern suggests.
However, I do think I will be buying a few more purse frames to practice on, as I know I WILL nail this pattern eventually, and besides, I have plenty of fabric to practice on ;-)
