Monday, May 14, 2012
The Evolution of a Purse
So I made this purse as secret gift for my Mom and now that Mother's Day has passed, I can blog about it.
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The idea behind this purse was to make something a little more planned. I'm still totally in love with all the white & thought it would be pretty if each square had just one color, so I made squares with a white center & border and a single round of color.
For this purse I wanted to line the squares in diagonals. I drew it up so I know how many of each square I needed:
If only I knew what I was doing. <sigh> The purse body isfine. I totally messed up the side and bottom gussets. I really don't know what I did wrong on paper, but once I had the purse together I saw my mistake.
You see, the squares were supposed to wrap around the purse and continue the pattern on the sides & bottom. But when I got it together, I messed it up...
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| Side view: the top square should be yellow & the middle should be green. I have no idea what the bottom one should be. <shrug> |
As the designer, I'm pretty much the only person who know that it's wrong, however, so I continued on. I finished the purse by crocheting around the top for a few rows and then skipping a bunch of stitches (while making a chain) to create a handle. A few more rows around (including stitches into the chain to make a more substantial handle) I then made a little pleat on each side and sewed it in place. Then it was off to be lined.
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I lined the purse in a cherry blossom fabric with pockets on both purse walls. Since you can see through the purse, the lining has two fabrics -- cherry blossoms on the inside and plain white on the outside. Between the layers is a light interfacing.
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Unlike a lot of linings I made, this lining is pieced together -- there are separate pieces for the two side gussets and the bottom. This allowed me to use a much thicker interfacing on the bottom which helps give the purse structure and a nice sturdy bottom. The purse can stand up on its own.
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Despite my design flaws, I think the purse came out great. I'm really pleased with it and Mom likes it -- which is really the only opinion that matters. As long as Mom's happy, I'm happy!
I hope the last few posts have encouraged you to try a granny square. They're quite fun and make a lovely summer purse.
Happy crafting!
Cherish
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