Mother of the Bride Handbag

As I have mentioned before, my step-daughter, Erin is getting married June 12. My outfit for the wedding came from Chico's (no, I did not make it myself for this event) but I wanted to make a small bag for my camera, tissues, phone, and keys. Knowing what I want to have on hand for the event helped me get the size just right.

I dug deep in my scrap drawer and found these satin scraps from a past life.
Seriously, the gold satin was the lining for a floor length wool coat I made in high school (won Championship in 4-H that year). The lighter satin was from Job's Daughter's satin robes (also from my school days). Both fabrics had been painted experimentally maybe 5 years ago and stashed away. The scraps were in a lot of odd shapes - left over from cutting around garment patterns! But I managed to get them put together in an interesting way.

I would like to be able to carry a clutch for the wedding (above) - I think it would look nicer, but I am afraid I will be the one holding Breckin (Erin and John's one year old son) during the ceremony, and I am thinking a shoulder strap might come in handy - so I made a narrow one that can be stuffed inside if I want it to be a clutch.

The vintage button is from my collection. It really is vintage - I paid quite a bit for it and it is very large.

I love this paisley cotton I retrieved from another drawer for the lining. I was collecting these intricate prints many years ago when I was interested in Paula Nadelstern's Kaleidoscope quilts.

I added a strip of pockets to the lining - just the right size for the cell phone and camera.

Here's the back.

To give it some extra body - I used a layer of Peltex under a layer of cotton batting. These were fused prior to the quilting to keep things from shifting around too much. The Peltex made it sort of harder to work with, but I think I will enjoy using it more because it will hold it's shape under the pressure of the weight of the camera, etc.