Yeha Picasa's alive!

I was really beginning to freak out. I couldn't connect to BB or anything. Luckily whatever was awry it's resolved after a reboot!
Here's my third cover from the fabric Jo gave me today. Thanks Jo! This cover has so many colors I LOVE to wear, the merlot, plum, sage, and rust. Plus I love the patchy look and geometric quality too. Since it's upholstery fabric it's very sturdy and durable, yet there are chenille threads woven throughout to create the design so it has softness as well.
This handbag and it's covers are just too fun! It's neat to be able to have choices as to what look I want to have in my purse with just slipping on a new cover! Since I'm not a very fussy person I am actually having more fun making the covers than I will ever have carring them! It's neat to see how the bag looks completely different with this simple change.
For all of the purses I've made I finally got it right on the interior pockets too. This is the most pockets I've put into a purse. But now all of the little things I have don't get lost. I have had some little pouches in the past for little things in my purse and those were great to contain things, cute and special to me since they were handmade by people that I care deeply for, but utimately they added weight and I had to get them open to use the contents. With the pockets inside this bag I just have to sort things as I put them back into my purse into the correct pocket and it's ready for me when I need it!

Stitch Sampler Grace Smarthandbag cover

The maker of this pattern used her Pfaff Creative sewing machine to demonstrate stitch sampling on both the Grace and Eliza Jane bags on her site. I really fell in love with the colors and uniqueness of those bags. When I got my pattern I emailed her and asked her how she created this technique as well as one other. She explained how she created the look.
I didn't want patchwork like her bags though so I decided to make my stitch sampler cover with stripes. I used a different color embroidery thread and different stitch pattern for each line.
I wanted to use the monograming feature as well so I picked scriptures that mean something to me to write out.
This side has Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path."
I am in love with this cover. I had a lot of fun making it. Stitching out 29 rows of decorative stitches does take time though. . . hours of time. The actual construction of the cover once the stitching is complete takes only about 15 minutes though. When I started this one I was wanting to embroider a cover and couldn't settle on an embroidery pattern. I'm happy I made this one instead for now!

Side 2 of the Stitch Sampler cover. The scripture on this side is from Proverbs 31:13 - "She finds wool and flax and works with eager hands."

My Grace Smarthandbag

I loved my mommy's bag so much I needed to make one for me. I was going to make it black just like hers, but after thinking about most of the colors I wear I decided to use brown. This is a twill brown fabric with a silver thread in it so it's almost shiny, but not really. It has a unique appearance. It goes well with most of the colors I wear so though I was thinking of making several base bags and then covers for various occassions I may just need this one, or maybe one other.
This pattern is really fun to make. The covers are even more fun. I have some ideas for covers and cannot wait to get some more time to put them together. The covers are very quick and easy to construct so I don't mind spending a little more time if needed to embelish them. My mom's covers so far all go with my bag and vice versa so that may be another neat factor, we can swap covers with eachother!

Purse lining. I used one of my all time favorite fabrics, Alexander Henry's Mother's Day. I put 8 pockets inside. 5 on one side, 3 on the other. Though this is roomier than the other purses I've made, I believe with the pockets I can still find things.

My purse with my stuff. . . since this is larger than all of the other purses I've made recently I can put my small clutch sized planner in it! I like that because hopefully by carrying it around I can stay more organized.

Green microsuede cover. The same fabric as my wallet.

Mommy's new Grace Smart Handbag

I know it's hard to see in black on black, but here is my Mommy's new bag that I just started and completed earlier this afternoon. I recently found a pattern for a purse called the Grace Smart handbag designed by Georgia at www.thesmarthandbag.com. I loved the concept. I had a bag that allowed you to change the cover like this maybe 10 years ago called the Susan Briganti Push Up bag. I had a size A, my mom a B, and my sis a C. I had two covers for it but sometime last year I sold it and the covers. They stopped making them and they were rather on the expensive side so I couldn't afford as many cover choices as I would have liked anyway. Also, way back, maybe when I was 10 yrs. old after they were cool I inherited a Bermuda bag with wooden handles and 2 button on covers from my sister but I don't remember what happened to it. It's long gone.
Basically this bag unlike the two mentioned above is a stand alone handbag. It's features are a zipper closure lining and organizer pockets inside. Like the others you can change the exterior easily. The neat thing about this one to me is that I can MAKE different covers to match the mood, occasion, outfit, etc. The pattern can be sewn as written or revised for your own needs. I for example changed the handles that the original pattern called for and made a singel strap from the same fabric as the bag because that's what I knew my mommy wanted. I also used a firm fuseable interfacing product like peltex, vs. the fleece and interfacing the pattern called for. I wanted the bag to stand on it's own easily like most ready made bags.
Anyway this is the basic bag, but if you scroll down through my next few posts you can see that I made a few covers for it. The pictures with the covers show more detail since they are not black on black. I want to embroider a cover but haven't gotten that far yet. I believe I also want to quilt a cover. But for now I have made 2 covers from interesting fabrics vs. embelishing them. My mommy like me isn't a terribly fussy lady so I don't think she will be really interested in super elaborate covers.
I will be making one for myself soon for my new handbag. I like the pattern, it was very easy for me to figure out after reading through it and looking through a few photos of completed bags online at various sources. There are quite a few steps to complete it but from the other handbag patterns that I've purchased and made it the past I think that just contributes to this being a well made handbag.
There were two times, both on the first cover's construction and both where I didn't read the instructions exactly as written where I had to redo a step or two, but both times it was easily correctable. The size is very nice too. I'm glad I didn't get the bigger bag pattern, Eliza Jane, that is offered. It would have been too big for my needs! I may however take the idea and make a tote bag. Stay tuned to find out!

If you've been around my blog at all you will recognize this fabric. My mommy liked the original bag I made from this and wanted one, but It didn't have a zipper and zippers are essential for her bags so I saved the scraps and luckily had plenty to make this first cover for her new bag.

This is the 2nd cover. The fabric is like two layers. It's kind of a tapestry. This is from scraps left over from a pillow project I recently had.

This shot shows the zipper and top of the bag.

Here's a shot of the lining. I sewed four different sized pockets inside. One is the size of a pen. The others range from cel phone sized to small wallet sized. This fabric is a pretty pink, green, and black print my mommy chose a few months back for something else. I had some left over and figured if she liked it then I probably couldn't go wrong now and it makes the inside of the bag sunny yet it's a print so it should help to hide any marks or smaller stains.