Another Elegant Bow Purse

In the spring on 2012, I made our middle daughter a new purse as a thank you for allowing us to stay with her before Dave’s spring contract started.   She has used the purse every day since and it was definitely showing it’s age.

We’ve been talking about making her a new one for a few months now.  I had picked up suitable drapery weight fabric on sale for the outside and she found a great price on half a meter of silver dupioni silk for the bow.   But that’s as far as we’d gotten in the planning of it.

She is now in the process of pursuing a career change and needed that new purse so as to give the best possible impression when going to in-person interviews… meaning that the talking about making a new one had to change to actually doing it.

Saturday night, I cut out and then fused interfacing to the outside and the bow sections.  Sunday morning was spent making the bow and sewing the outside of the purse together.

There was nothing in my fabric dresser that caught her eye for the lining so we made a quick trip to Len’s Mill in the afternoon.  We, of course, checked the discount section first and luckily found something she really liked.

Jacobean Arbor inspired by Partrica Campbell for Timeless Treasures Patt# PCAM-C3778  is from an older line and was on sale for 50% off the already reduced price of $7.69/meter.

After washing, drying and pressing… the lining was ready to cut Monday morning.

But first I had to make and attach the strap.

On the original purse, I’d made two straps but for this new one, she wanted a single strap.  This strap is 5 inches wide where it attaches to the sides of the purse, so I pleated it in the middle to make a narrower section for over the shoulder.  I actually like this version better.

She also asked that I not add the large zippered pocket to the lining as she rarely used it.  She did however want to keep the pockets on either side of the lining with three sections in each.

It took a bit to figure out how to get the print on the pockets to line up with the print on the main lining pieces, but I think I came as close to perfect as was possible.

I’m so pleased with how the finished purse turned out.

A side view:

Oh… I forgot to mention… she also wanted to keep the smaller zippered pocket in one side of the lining.

I finished with about a half hour to spare before I had to drive her to the bus station for her trip back to Toronto on Tuesday.  She even agreed to model it just before we left…

I would be so pleased if you chose to share by clicking on one of the buttons below!