My third craft since beginning this blog (the second will be coming out of order b/c it's a birthday present and I don't want her to see it here first) is a
Buttercup Bag. This is a free pattern for personal use from the blog "Made By Rae." I used her
Buttercup Bag remix version, which is basically more interfacing and 129% bigger than the original.
Since I didn't take any pictures as I went along, here's the finished product first! The outer purse material is a sweet little floral. I couldn't quite figure out which kind of pleats the instructions were trying to get me to do, so I chose to do box pleats. I think they turned out terrific! It did make the lining a bit too long for the outer material, once I connected the two towards the end. But, I just folded over the lining inside a bit and no problems at all.
Here's a bit of detail on the pleating, and also a showcase of the buttons! The buttons were covered in the same material using a cheap-o button cover from Joann's. The original pattern instructions call for an rounded rectangle for the decorative fabric behind the buttons. I tried twice and both times they looked extremely deformed so I settled on a smaller version of the pattern top. I like it!
Here you can also see details of the buttons and pleats as well as the ties I added. These are made from the lining fabric. After I made the purse strap as instructed, I added a strip of the red and white checked lining fabric at each end of the strap, perpendicular to the strap (like a T). Once the strap was sewn into the lining of each side of the purse, I could pull the strip of checked material out and tie a little decorative knot. The added checked material has an added bonus: it camouflages where the straps are sewn into the lining AND where I mismatched the seams on the sides of the purse. Plus they are too cute!
Last but not least, the inside of the purse.The directions call for a magnetic snap on each side of the purse, which I did. It also calls for one pocket, but I added two, one on each side of the purse.
This purse was fairly easy to make, especially considering that I am a novice seamstress. Much of it was sewn on the machine, though I did sew the decorative items on by hand as well as the slip stitch to close the bottom once everything was turned the right way out. It took me about fifteen hours, which is a far cry from a commenter on the Made By Rae website who says she made it in two hours! Oh well. I had fun.
The real test will be: is it functional? I'm going to start using it today, so we'll see.
One other thing... the night I finished up the purse, I watched several episodes of the old
Kolchak: The Night Stalker show. I guess I'll probably always hear that whistle in my mind when I look at my purse.
