Purse Palooza

Piccadilly Circus Handbag

11 Comments / Purse Palooza, Purse/Pouch / By Melissa Dunworth

Back at the beginning of October my wonderful friend CeLynn and I decided it was time to make another set of handbags together. We picked another pattern out of Sara Lawson’s book, Big City Bags, and started pulling from our stashes.

I found some great prints that I bought this summer when my mom was visiting but I was completely unsure if I would have enough fabric because I was slightly under the fabric requirements for the pattern. I emailed Sara on a Saturday, and I wasn’t expecting a response for a couple days, after all it was the weekend. I was so excited that she responded almost immediately and told me I should be fine so long as I was very careful with my cutting. I love AWESOME designers like Sara who really do make themselves available to their followers!

I have to say that I absolutely love how this bag turned out. In fact I only made one change and that was using D-Rings instead of actual rings. I couldn’t find any at all at JoAnns and I was too excited to get stitching to order any online and wait. I was so pleased with how the curved corners turned out – if you showed me this pattern 3 years ago I would have scoffed at the idea that I could sew it!

I didn’t have enough of my interior fabric to make the pockets so I grabbed a coordinating Kona. The entire bag, minus the interfacings was made from my stash. Oh how I love stash projects, my husband would be so proud!

I asked Anne to take a picture of me with the bag. When the only person available to take your picture is just under 4 feet tall you end up with some interesting angles. Next time I will have her stand on a foot stool!

I have to say I really love this bag and again I am just so pleased with Sara’s patterns. I am really looking forward to her next book!

And for those who don’t follow me on instagram, today is a certain someone’s fifth birthday. I am crying on the inside!

2 Comments / product review, Purse Palooza / By Melissa Dunworth

Hi Everyone! Today I am guest posting over at Sew Sweetness as part of the Purse Palooza 2012. I have written a review of the Boutique Shoulder Bag by Bella Nonna.

Head on over and check it out! I hope you all have a great weekend!

I’ve got something!

13 Comments / Purse Palooza / By Melissa Dunworth

Yesterday I had nothing, my friend Beth, said that I had ‘nearly something’. I love that, because it was nearly something! Now though, I really have something!

I have a beautiful new bag!

Here is the inside:

I have to say I am really tickled with how it turned out. There were a few (well, a lot) of oopses while I was making this, but at the end of the day I am really happy with how it turned out.

I bought this bag as a kit from Sassy Packs back in December and I knew I would make it eventually. Then Sara from Sew Sweetness invited me to do a pattern review as part of Purse Palooza. Needless to say that lit a fire under me, thus a bag is born!

I will be posting my review over on Sew Sweetness on June 29th.

In other news… have you seen the re-launch of the Superior Threads website?!? It is fabulous and big news – they are now carrying fabric in addition to their amazing threads.

I started working on Anne’s new project last night, so far I am loving it, I can’t wait to share it with you, hopefully next week. I just need to conquer yet another zipper.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Home Sweet Home

14 Comments / Bee Blocks, Purse Palooza / By Melissa Dunworth

We are back in the Pacific Northwest and I have to agree with everyone else…there is just no place like home. I did come to realize that a king size bed is EXTRA large when sleeping in it alone. I have done it a few times throughout the past year, really unavoidable when your spouse is in the military, but for months on end is a whole other story!

Anne was so excited to be home, she immediately ran to her downstairs toy box and yelled “look at all my new toys!” The best thing is that they are all the toys she has always had except she hasn’t seen them in 5 weeks! LOL

Yesterday I unpacked all the sewing stuff that I brought down to CA with and I started reading the pattern and laying out all of the fabric to make a new handbag. I am participating in Purse Palooza over at Sew Sweetness. I will be doing my pattern review on the very last day. Make sure you go check it out, there are prizes to be won every single day and if you make a purse this month that is one more chance to win! I will start sewing it together today.

While I was gone I received lot’s of squishy packages! May was my month for Sew Bee Blissful and the blocks have started to roll in. Here are the one’s I have received so far:

They are all Firefly blocks. My bee mates followed my tutorial from back in January. This is going to be a quilt for my hubs when he comes back from Afghanistan. What do you think? Manly enough so far? I have a lot more fabric and will hopefully end up with a lot more blocks!

What have you been up to this past weekend?