Jane Parker class

You may have noticed a few posts earlier that I posted pictures of Jane Parker's purses. The class was yesterday and was worth the price of admission as Jane provided all of the fabrics, trims, embellishments and interfacings to complete one of two styles of bags she was teaching. She even included the book she uses as the basis for her purses. The book is Crazy Quilting with attitude by Barbara Randle. Being a hand work person it was interesting to see her all machine sewing work of purses and home accessories.

We spent the morning making the basic bits like the lining, handle and interior lining with a pocket. The afternoon was more difficult for me as we needed to crazy quilt the exterior (lots of choices!) and complete the project. I chose a kit for a purse that included lime green, navy and red fabrics. It made up into a purse wth a rectangular bottom, two embellished exterior pockets and a long single handle. Here is what I came up with:

I added the crystals after I got home as I thought it could use a bit more glitz. I may add even more once I dig into my stash however I think its fine the way it is right now. The handle is long enough that you can wear it over your shoulder or across your body which adds to its versatility.

One snafu occured right at the beginning which impacted the overall design of the bag. The top portion of this bag was supposed to have had a notch in it for the pear orament to hang over. Jane forgot the make that adjustment and I was too distracted to read the instructions. Oh well, I can do it that way next time as this design does speak to my need to use up fabric.

That red pear ornament is darn heavy! It is purely decorative as the top of the bag and the exterior pockets are all closed with magnetic snaps. I think it began life as a key chain but I think it works well with this bag. There were no other ornaments that would work well with my bag but most of the others were home dec tassels - some embellished, some beaded and a couple of very fat simple ones. I will be on the lookout for these when I have a good coupon at JoAnns.

A couple of changes I will make when I next do this kind of bag is to use stiffer interfacing (fusible fleece seems a better choice for stronger sides) and use my cording foot for the couching of the trim. I had forgotten all my machine accessories so the trim was no fun to couch. The fussy red trim was sewn on by me although most of the other participants used glue. Weird thing about this whole project is that I have the perfect fussy trim in my stash for these fabric choices. I guess I will just have to make another one!

Have a good week!