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).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Dotty was happy to model. |
I think my sister was pleased with her refashioned birthday gift.
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| Cutsie purse for a cutsie sister. |
