Zakka Style Sew Along - Pleated Coin Purse

what? you say its slightly lopsided?

This was one of the Zakka Style projects I was looking forward to the most.  I was worried because it involved a purse frame & a new lining technique.  I was SUPPOSED to do this technique for a couple of garments I've made, but I was nervous about it. I followed the excellent, straightforward instructions for this particular Zakka Style project and before I knew it I'd done it!

The outer fabric is Lotta Jansdotter's small spring buds in Espresso (sigh that makes me want coffee) and it's lined with Valori Wells Liv in Coral from the Cocoon collection.  I'm not sure the combination was the best choice, but I get to imagine giant butterflies landing on delicate flowers, so I'm happy.

My purse hardware is from Bagpurseframes on Etsy.com.  They have an amazing amount of purse hardware, their items ship from the source so they take a bit longer to make it to you, but it was kind of fun to get my first mail from China and it got here in plenty of time for this week's project!  Now that I've almost successfully accomplished my first purse with a frame, I'm looking forward to planning more in the future.



I think my only complaint about this is that it doesn't have a wide enough mouth for how deep it is to put your hand in and dig around the bottom and root around for stuff, if you are the sort to put "stuff" in a purse.

 I can't actually picture using it for change, it's 2x bigger than I'd want a coin purse to be I think - but filling it with a lip gloss, compact and eyeliner? Perfect.  If you didn't line it with batting and used interfacing it'd be much more flexible to bring the bottom up to you, so I may try that the next time.

ooh the light is glistening off the beads!

As shown, I have more of these frames with different colored beads. I'd love to alter the shape of this to make a glasses case for my husband, but I think he'd object to the giant beads, so I'll have to make one for my sunglasses instead.  At this rate my purse is going to be full of things I've made, which pretty cool now that I think of it.  Great challenge... I need to empty out my purse and make a container for every single thing in there. Then I need to make my own purse, shoes, and knit my own socks so I wander the streets in 100% handmade goods!