Patti Wagon: A Verse about a Purse

I'm not picky about much. I'll pretty much eat any food, listen to any music, read any book, but when it comes to shoes and purses, I am a picky purchaser. This translates to, "I have bought approximately three purses in my adult life." If I'm going to carry it around every day, I want my purse to be just right. Ergo I have been patiently waiting to find a cute, smallish, and fun shoulder bag for a couple years. My current shoulder bag is a Kavu, and while it definitely has function, it is lacking on the form. Now don't think that I have been obsessing over this search for two years. I really don't think about it often, but whenever I go to a store with purses, I always check them out with the hopes that I might find my rose among thorns. Last weekend I finally decided to scratch the purse-finding and get on with the purse-making.

I made this purse entirely from materials that I already had. And I didn't even use my sewing machine. It's on the fritz! (Don't worry, it'll be fixed in no time. Have you been reading my mom's blog?) Bottom line: this is a project anyone can do!

Here are my raw materials (minus the zipper that I cut out of one of my many unused teacher bags):

The strap is an old belt. The lining is canvas, leftover from my pillow recovering (re-covering, that is), and the red print is from a skirt that my family brought me back from Bolivia. (Correct me if I'm wrong??) I liked the skirt, but it was too long and the bottom section was ill-fitting, so I cut it off a couple years ago, and now I wear it as a mini skirt. I kept the fabric because I liked it. It's sturdy and cute and fun, so what better way to put it to use than in a purse?

Aforementioned mini skirt:

Here's what I did to make the purse:

I first cut down my materials to the right size and took apart the hardware on the belt.

Then I sewed the outside layer on three edges, keeping my seams on the inside.

Here is how I attached the belt as a strap. One end already had a hole (from the buckle), and I hammered another small hole on the other end. I used an embroidery needle and yarn to loop through the hole about 10 times.

I made my lining and sewed the zipper in. I realized that I didn't make the edges long enough to extend the length of the purse, so notice the patch I sewed on at the end on the left. (See, even people who don't measure can make the purse!)