First Post and a Skirt Refashion

Thank you for allowing me to share my growing enthusiasm with you!  I am excited to blog about what's increasingly becoming my thrifting and refashioning obsession, and I have a lot to share with you. In fact, I'll start right off with a skirt to purse refashion.

A few months ago, a friend of mine hosted a clothing swap.  I came away with several great items, one of which was this cute flower print skirt.  I grabbed it because of the cute print, knowing that I would never wear it as a skirt ( a tad bit teenagery).  

Cutsie skirt.

When my sister's birthday rolled around, I knew just what to do. I got busy refashioning this cutsie skirt into a chic purse for her.  I first cut the strip off the bottom.

As you can see, strip is cut.

Next, I trimmed off a bit of the sides just so it wasn't flaring out  and sewed the bottom of the skirt, inside out and right sides facing, to create the bag.  I then laid the bag over an old t-shirt, and measured and cut out a lining.  Note: I only cut up to the base of the elastic top. 

Measuring and cutting lining from an old t-shirt.

Once cut, the t-shirt lining was sewn up just like the bag, right sides facing (all around the edges, leaving an opening at the top).  I now had a lining, and I slipped it into the inside of the purse and spread it out.  Note: the right sides should be facing you when you look in the purse. Folding over the raw edges, I stitched it onto the inside of the purse along the bottom of the elastic top. 

Lining sewn in at the base of the elastic.

Remember the bottom part that I cut off?  I don't have any photos, but that became the strap.  I folded it over and sewed down the edges and then sewed it into the sides of the purse. 
 
Now here's where it got tricky.  I decided to sew in a zipper so that the purse would stay closed.  I'll get this out in the open now.  I'm not an expert seamstress. I have a hard time with zippers.  I have always just avoided them or hand stitched them in.  Yet, I suppose my growing confidence led me to attempt a zipper.  So...  I found a zipper foot (I didn't have one before.  Hmm.. perhaps this is why I had such a hard time?) and found that it was actually easier than I thought.  In fact, I only had to rip the seam once.  For those of you who are zipper challenged like me, check out this helpful  Zipper Tutorial.  

I folded down the very outside edges and sewed as close to the zipper as I could get.

In the end, the purse turned out really cute.  I made a few fabric flowers out of the scraps and stitched them on the outside.  

Dotty was happy to model.

I think my sister was pleased with her refashioned birthday gift.

Cutsie purse for a cutsie sister.