Sunshine On My Shoulder

My poor purse. I loved this tattered, abused satchel. Clearly it served its time well, and I'm very ashamed to admit that I carried it around like this for a week.






Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to find a purse that I love. I've hit all my usual treasure troves, but nothing (that I can afford, anyway) has really jumped out and said "Buy me!". Soooo...

In true crafter's fashion, I decided to try my hand at making a purse. After a long day of futile purse shopping, I didn't want to head back to town for fabric. Since I'm a major tightwad, I didn't want to spring for a pattern. Thus, I dug to the very bottom of my fabric stash, harvested some hardware from dear Old Blue, and ripped off a fabulous design from Made by Rae. A few hours later, I had this...





And I was thrilled! It's sunny, energetic, and it has secret pockets for my two possessions that all my children covet: gum and phone. It came together quite easily and I'm really happy with the result.

I started from the inside out, using the most random yet sturdy fabric I had.







At first, I was thinking a plain, bright yellow panel would be good. Then, the idea evolved into chevrons. Since I'm mathematically challenged, I decided to ditch my failed chevron attempt and that yellow and white stripes on a diagonal offered just the right Giorgio-esque panache (I couldn't get enough of those stripes in the '80s and '90s and I still love them. Phyllis Nefler would be so proud!).














The pleated, blue-striped canvas is from my Grandma Lorna's basement, and now that I think of it, so are the bright yellow and the pale yellow I used for the lining. Now that is awesome!






I cut apart my old blue purse (and shed one last tear), added some tabs to those gold rings,






and voila!






A new purse that is screaming "summer vacation!". I felt so vibrant at the grocery store today with this purse draped over my shoulder. I think I'll even try my hand at constructing a few more until I save up enough cash for that Michael Kors number I'm eyeing. Ha!