Easter Purses

This weekend has been all about purses.  My sister asked me to design a couple of purses for the daughters of her friends that she could give them in place of easter eggs.  As both of them love dance class, she wanted this built into the design.  The designs are based on descriptions of the girls themselves and the applique started with just the outline shapes.

The designs were then applied to the purse fabrics and the embroidery added the real detail and life to the little ballerinas.

Presents for the Girls

At the beginning of December I had a lovely weekend in Edinburgh with my girlfriends.  We had a fabulous time and stayed in a lovely Georgian apartment.  The view from the living area was outstanding.

I can definitely recommend the Destination Edinburgh apartments at 20 York Place for any groups visiting this lovely city.

Highlights of the visit were The Dome, The Olive Branch Bistro and Lord Bodo's Bar.

Anyway, the actual point of this post was to tell you about the pressies I made for the girls to mark our visit.  After much deliberation I settled on small purses/make up bags with detachable flower brooches all lined in complementary fabrics.  I really enjoyed making them and they were really well received.

"Moo", said the Cow

After running out of ideas, I asked the kids what they would like to have on a little purse.  8yo's suggestion was a highland cow, a suggestion that I initially thought was too difficult to reproduce on such a small scale.  I gave it a try though, and managed to at least make it recognisable.



Unable to think of a complementary design for the reverse of the purse, I went for a literal translation and put the back of the cow on the back of the purse!

 
Happy with the result,  I then followed it with a sheep purse.  Perhaps we will move on to the rest of the farmyard at a later date.

Purses

This week has been purse making week.  I have had a lovely time designing and making these pretty things and found them to be much easier than I expected to make.  I was helped massively by one particular blog post Purse Frames De-mystified by the fabulous Lisa Lam who is the Oracle on all things bag and purse related.

This first set of purses are all in some way fashion related (this was totally unintended, they just turned out that way).  They are made with silver 125mm purse frames with either a cotton or calico cotton background.  The images are applique pieces, enhanced with free motion embroidery.

Each purse has a different design on the front and back and most are linked in some way.  The design above 'Going Out' has a clutch bag design on the back.

 

All of the purses are lined with a complementary cotton fabric, usually featured on the outside in some way, so creating a linking theme.

I have already had interest in a couple of the purses, so I think it is time to start designing more..............  I think the next lot will be a smaller purse frame  and possibly in a rounder shape.

  Watch this space!