Reversible Purse

In the middle of the week i had an idea to make a reversible purse. This took me a about a couple hours spread over 2 nights. I had some pink cord left over from my gyro mouse bag (see May 2008), which dictated my fabric choice of the cat fabric also leftover from gyro mouse bag and pink from an old tank top left over from the t-shirt quilt (see June 2008).

My first step was to take a piece of newspaper, my wallet, keys, and cell phone to create a template for the purse that would hold all those contents easily. I decided on 20 inches long by 10 inches wide, then I cut out the cat fabric to use a template to cut the pink fabric.

I stretched the shirt over the cutting mat so i didn't cut through both layers of the fabric

The pink fabric is almost cut to the same size.

a preview of side one.

A preview of side two.

I then sewed the top and the bottom closed while the fabric was inside out [good side to good side].

next, while still inside out I sewed the sides down 3 to 4 inches which will be the front flap.
The result of all the sewing on the reverse side.

Next I turned the purse right side out and on the open edges i tucked the raw edges in and pined everything down.
Then I folded the open area in half and then sewed along both edges.

Next i used my sewing machine to put in button hole stitching.

Button hole on the reverse.

I used a seam ripper to open the button hole.

then i attached the buttons back to back, make sure you leave enough slack when sewing the buttons so that they will still slip through the button hole.


The last step was to hand sew in the cord, right under the fold. there should be enough space to tuck the cord a 1/4 inch or so into the bag to hide the raw edges.


The finished purse side one.

The finished purse side two.


The filled finished purse.

Slip Covers for Sofa

My boyfriend had a little sofa whose 70's plaid cushion had come to their demise so I made some new cushions for the sofa.


Step 1: was to get 5 inch thick foam from joanns when it was on sale and cut it in 24"x20" squares. there was a little extra piece at the end of the foam which I made into a side cushion.

Step 2: get a whole bunch a fabric and cut it to size.

This is a picture of the foam and the cut fabric.

Step 3: sew all of the pieces together except one long edge, which the zipper will be sewn into it.

Step 4: sew the zipper in the one long piece for all 5 pieces.

Step 5: sew the last piece into place and stuff with the foam.

The finished sofa. I left the fabric a little baggy so that i could put some batting in to hide the rough edge cuts. turns out you can't really see it. so the batting will be the next step.

But Fredo doesn't care and is enjoying the sofa anyway!