sugary sweet

It's my sister's 15th birthday soon, so I whipped up a little bag for her. She loved the elephant bag I made for myself from Bend the Rules sewing (months ago), and wanted one for herself, but smaller. I never made one, mostly because she loved how the print with the elephants was cream based like the twill. I realized that I have Japanese puppy fabric that's also cream based, so off I went.

I love this purse, and hope she will too. I used up nearly all of my favorite puppy print though, and am sitting on my hands to stop myself from ordering more.

That pink is some pretty dyed lace I had on hand for my mom's quilt, but I never wound up using it. What better than a pretty tab - and also a pocket accent!

I divided the pocket because I thought she might want somewhere to store her phone.

I really like the measurements of this bag, and am very glad I wrote them down, since I usually don't. In case you would like to make this version, here's what I used:

For outside:

-cut 2 pieces of main outside fabric 4"x14"
-cut 1 piece of main outside fabric 6"x14"
-cut 2 pieces of accent outside fabric 3"x14"

*edit* I forgot to mention how I got the outside back measurements. Once you sew the front together, you'll get a lovely flared shape. I just layed this down and traced this shape onto another piece of twill; and voila, the back!

For lining:

-cut 2 pieces of main outside fabric 3"x12 1/2" for facing
-cut 2 pieces of lining fabric 12 1/2"x12"

Use 1/2" seams for all pieces. I did not use any interfacing, but I also used some nice, heavy twill. You can cut your pocket to whatever size you think looks good. This size is a great purse, but is good because it can hold books and papers too.

I always trim my lining a bit, so once the front and back lining pieces were sewn together I took 1/4" extra off the top.

Comments

[Jen]

SO cute!!! she will love it!!

[LeeAnn]

Umm. Get off your hands and order some more fabric!

Pleats are my new obsession!