Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Severe Bee Allergy

Yep, that would be my mom. The one with the severe bee allergy. The last time she got stung she had left her epi-pen out in the car while she was dining on the patio at a restaurant. Her friend ran to the car to get the epi-pen, got her injected, but it was too late - she ended up with a one-way Life-Flight helicopter ride to the nearest hospital - which would have been two hours away by car.

And just why did she not have her purse with her? Well, it's a lovely leather Coach bag - but with all the stuff she's got inside the beast must weigh close to 40 lbs.! My solution? Sew her up a super-fun quilted bag in her favorite color -- red -- in a petite little size that she'd be sure to carry with her.  It was my first purse and I really liked the way it turned out - a riot of different red fabrics crazy-patched together. Sadly, I did not take any pictures of it, but when we were visiting with my folks a couple of weeks ago, my sweetie looked at the fugly black canvas thing I was toting around and said, "you should sew yourself a cute little purse like that!"

So I did!
 It was a very spur of the moment project - basically I opened the cabinet o'fabric and pulled out some improvisational quilt squares I'd made a while ago and began cutting out the shapes. I quilted an "open-faced quilt sandwich" (just the outer layer and some batting)  and ironed some fusible interfacing to the lining fabric. I made sure to include some inside (quilted) pockets - one for my sunglasses, and one for my lipstick, and sewed the whole thing together.


My notions cabinet just happened to have some magnetic purse snaps inside which were not only super-easy to put on, but give the bag just the slightest oomph of professionalism. Here is the other side of the bag: keen-eyed readers will spot some Amy Butler Ginger Bliss, and Charm, and a couple of different Kaffe Fasset fabrics.

The quilting was done in my "faux free-motion" style and I think it pretty handily reads as a lovely paisley swirl.
I plan to tote it to a "Ladies Night Out" cocktail party this Friday - maybe I'll have to wear a hand-sewn skirt as well - just to be as hand-made as utterly possible!