Sew Over It "DIY Indian Ribbon Purse"

As predicted sewing my first solo successful zipper in my Genoa Tote has unleashed the desire to sew all the zippers and purses!

About two years ago the UK based store Sew Over It released a tutorial for a DIY Indian Ribbon Purse...along with a kit that you could purchase with material bought on the store owners trip to India. In a moment of boredom at work I bought the kit...international postage be dammed! And then it sat in my cupboard for about two years because...zippers!

Hot on the heels of my Genoa Tote I got right on to making this purse. It was fun deciding how to place the ribbons, but you can see that one ribbon is much shorter than the others thus making the purse smaller than it should be. It also meant that the little leather tabs covering each end of the zip don't really show like they are supposed to. Annoying.




Things went pretty well with this zipper - I'm just disappointed that the shorter piece of ribbon has affected the way the whole purse looks. The kit combined with the postage wasn't cheap so I wish the store had checked their product properly.

 More zips to come - watch this space!

Little leather clutch

About this time last year I bought this little leather remnant from The Fabric Store with the hopes of making a bag to take along to Melbourne Frocktails. If I couldn't make a dress successfully at least the bag would be made by me. Nope...things didn't quite work out.

I had initially wanted to install a closure for the bag that required punching and hammering...but it just didn't work out. I managed to un-pry the bent and dented closure without damaging the leather, but as I didn't know how to next proceed the bag was left in a dark drawer, mainly forgotten about.

Fast forward to our trip in Japan where I found these nifty little leather closures at my beloved Nomura Tailor. The closures screw in and just require a hole punched through both parts of the leather (bag and flap) in order to work. If you are looking for something similar this is the sort of thing and is available via etsy.

Source

After I had the fundamentals of closing the bag sorted the rest was pretty simple. I had traced the shape of the bag I wanted onto some paper and then traced that onto the leather before cutting it out. I stuck each of the side seams down with Wondertape (don't pin leather as it will leave holes) and then stitched with my machine. I used a leather needle and I had bought special thread, but it wouldn't fit through my needle without shredding, so I just used it in the bobbin.  I also increased my stitch length a little bit. Things sewed OK but the machine was a bit clunky. Apparently if you increase the stitch length substantially things will be less clunky!

I'm pretty chuffed with this little bag and I'm going to take it to the upcoming High Tea I'm organising for the Sydney Spoolettes....under the same assumption that I won't be wearing a me-made dress, but at least something will be made by me!

Now that I have a small taste of sewing with letter I'm quite keen to make a simple tote with a pouch for my travel card and phone. Watch this space...