A week before my wedding, I still didn't have a something borrowed. Everything else was covered: old, new, blue. I mentioned it to my Aunt R the day of the shower, and she came up trumps.
The next evening at the "meet the family" dinner, she handed me this piece of plastic.
"Your grandfather made this in the late 1940s," she said. "I thought maybe you could wear it as a bangle or something."
How awesome is that? I was really happy to have it, because it meant that I had something from grandparents from both my mom and my dad's sides of the family.
Unfortunately, it is too big to be a bangle for me, so I had to think for a bit. Then I realized (or maybe someone suggested it, I'm not sure) that it would be a good handle for the purse I still needed to make. Problem solved.
To make it, I used the first piece of silk we tested the embroidery on. The embroidery has white patches and the silk is water-spotted, but it turns out I stitched the other embroidery tests onto the wrong side of other pieces of silk. This piece was also pre-hemmed. I cut the piece into a rectangle including the hem, folded it width-wise right-sides together, and sewed it along the bottom and side. I cut another piece of silk into a rectangle, folded it width-wise right sides together, and sewed up the side. The hem was a bit grubby, but I folded it own dhalfway to the inside and pressed it. I made two wide belt loops and attached them to the inside hem; sadly, one of the loops went off centre and I didn't notice until I had finished. Oh well.
After I attached the loops, I unfolded the hem, pinned the top of the lining to it (matching seams, but so the bottoms were pointing in opposite directions, right side to wrong side), and sewed them together. I hope the picture below is a little clearer. The bottom of the purse is on the left, the bottom of the lining is on the right.
I then sewed up the bottom of the lining, remembering just in time to leave a hole so I could pull the purse right-side-out. I trimmed the corners and seam allowances, turned it out, and sewed up the hole in the lining.
See how the plastic is like a key ring? To attach the handle to the purse, I threaded one end through the loop on once side, then threaded the other end on the other side. To open, I just unthreaded one side. It was a bit cumbersome, but I could get the big things like my camera and phone out without unthreading (thanks to the accidental asymmetry, which is why I didn't fix it). I could easily pull it on and off a wrist. The purse was so handy I wound up not using the pockets on my dress during the day!
Stuff in a bride's purse:
Can I just talk about the sewing kit for a second? Did you know that you can take the end off of Gütermann spools and put things inside them? I stuck a needle and a couple of safety pins inside mine. Instant sewing kit. Mind blown.
I did not know about the thread -but I do now!! Cool!
ReplyDeleteI mean, spool.
ReplyDeleteI know, right? As soon as I found out, I went around filling a bunch with needles. The DC tends to stick needles in the sides, but this might be a game changer. Doesn't seem to be true of the 100% cotton spools, though.
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