Monday, May 31st, 2010

Sewing

So, I’ve had this orange Paul Frank monkey purse for years and years, that is finally dead. Which is a shame, because I love it.

I bought a blue Paul Frank monkey purse on eBay awhile back to replace it and I really don’t like it. It’s the wrong shape and it’s even ripping in the same place already, so I’ve been on the lookout for a new style of bag.

I saw a Gretsch canvas messenger bag on the Gretsch website a couple months ago. The description said something about being “heavy duty, thick canvas and cotton webbing strap” or some such nonsense. I say nonsense because when it turned up in my mailbox, it was flimsy, thin canvas and the strap totally sucked. But the bag still had some elements of cool and it wasn’t too expensive, so I decided to see what I could do with it.

My brother and I went to Guitar Center looking for a guitar strap to use as a strap for the bag. I’m really glad he came, because he chose the perfect strap that I never would have looked twice at hanging on the rack. In fact, when he picked it up to suggest it, I wrinkled my nose, and then he laid it against the bag and it was, well, perfect.

purse1

purse2

Today, I’m trying to sew a liner for it, to help with the flimsy feel. Though to be honest, I’ve kind of gotten used to the thin-ness of it and it doesn’t bug me so much. But, I’d already bought a couple fabrics to line it with so I thought I might as well give it a go. Besides, the sewing stuff is out today.

Why?

Because Veronica’s class does projects for book reports. They have a bunch of different types of books they have to read throughout the year, and to fulfull her Biography requirement, Veronica read a book about Betsy Ross. For her project, she wanted to sew a flag. Fortunately, this is a 4 day weekend for the girls so we had time to devote most of Friday to the sewing of a flag.

flag

It looks totally fantastic. She really did sew it herself on the serger. I just helped her stay straight and I measured and cut the pieces. After her oral report, we’re going to (haha. How long before it actually happens?) put a back on it and turn it into a little blanket.

So, today I used the leftover red cotton to sew a trial-run liner

purse4

before cutting into the crushed gold velvet (hee hee) I intend to line it with.

purse3

The trial liner is pretty good. A little big. But I feel confident.