I love every purse, bag and backpack by Cath Kidston but I do not like the idea of paying that much for a purse. (Once you factor in exchange and shipping it’s a lot.) So when I found a very similarly styled floral bag at the thrift store for $5 I was thrilled. I bought it. I used it. I loved it. I broke it.
Sadly it was beyond repair but the strap was salvageable so I cut it off and kept it.
Then I thought on it for a few weeks. You know how sometimes a project needs to simmer in your mind sometimes before you can launch into it? This was like that but I finally came up with a plan. Sort of. Each piece came in stages and I didn’t know what the finished project would look like until it was complete.
My goal for this (like for my quilt) was to spend nothing so I looked to my stash of feltable yarns. I was missing a few key colours like green and darkest pink so I pulled out some food colouring and experimented in the kitchen.
all the components pre-felting
A little intarsia, embroidery, hand knitting, machine knitting, and stitching later and I now have The purse I hoped for.
see how well the strap matches the front? that makes me so happy!
detail shot of the side. This green panel is what im most proud of – it began an ugly yellow/orange. After dying I ran it though a kids knitting machine from the 1960s.
It’s a little larger than I anticipated but that will be oh so helpful as I travel to Alberta later this week with my daughter.
Hooray for cheap projects and big purses!
(Linking to Little Home Blessings because Melody has been a great inspiration.)
