Cynthia St. Charles Store

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

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.

3 comments:

  1. This is so very cool! I think that when you work with scraps you can come up with far more interesting designs. but I think the button is what draws everything together.

    I am so glad you played surface design with the scraps. It is very worth keeping scraps, no matter how many people think life has to be tidied up even to the smallest bit.

    I am going to direct my students to this post. I teach City and Guilds fashion. I want them to see how everything works together to make the whole...not just plonking things on! And also how one detail is what can lift something to being spot on.

    I hope you have a lovely day!
    Sandy in the UK

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  2. Beautiful hand bag and so full of memories. I love your creative use of your scraps.

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