purses and totes and bags, oh my!

More crafts from the archives...

These purses are the result of a craft show-induced frenzy for stock in the fall/winter of 2003. I was hugely excited about my first show and set up an enormous assembly line to efficently deal with the 30 bags that I wanted to complete.

Here's a couple of the finished purses. They're all mainly denim, with cotton or cordoroy or who-knows-what for the outside pockets and lining.

This was a learning experience.
THE GOOD:
- I used up a lot of small fabric pieces from my stash.
- The assembly line saved me a lot of time.
- I got really good at making purses. And topstitching. And adding zippers.
- They looked very professional.
- I made a good amount of money.

THE BAD:
- People on my floor started to hate me for taking over the study lounge with my sewing machine and mountains of fabric.
- All the ones I like the best sold (of course). Next time, I'll save my favorites for ME!
- All that cutting at one time nearly gave me Carpal-Tunnel.
- Pinning through multiple layers of denim ---> interesting and unique pin pricks, sticks, and rips. Ouch!

THE UGLY:
- By the time I finished, I didn't want to sew for about two months. Never before had I been so burnt out on something I enjoyed so much. From then on, the key word for sewing was 'MODERATION.' I'm ok with hating bottlecaps (I'll explain in a later post), but fabric = love.