Serendipity Quilting

Upcyle is the latest phrase I’ve heard going around…. it’s when you take an existing item you no longer use and give it new life….. so… the princess outgrew her denim skirt….. I saw the most ADORABLE purse someone was carrying at church and thought we could do that!!!  Unfortunately….. no one seems to carry purse handles locally anymore so it was delayed while I worked that out in my tiny brain.  The one I saw also had the most adorable western belt on it….. so I’m still hunting… but let me say…. you can change the belt out as often as you like… so it makes it more fun for little girls of all ages…..  so first you need a denim skirt… and we grabbed a pair of capris she had also out grown to cut the handles out of the legs….

If you are going to make your own handles…. you could use a belt for a shoulder strap or a piece of webbing… we wanted short handles so I cut these 2 1/2 inches wide and the length of her capris legs…. and the filler rope that you can find in any craft section.

I pressed the denim to the center, sewed the rope in place on either end and then trimmed the rope a bit shorter so when sewing the handles on there isn’t quite the bulk…. but let’s not ignore the fact that when you go to sew these on you are sewing through a minimum of 4-6 layers of denim…. break out the heavy duty sewing machine……  then we just sewed the edges together…. we used the same yellow thread color that the skirt was already top stitched in so we matched and then handles when sewn in, I went over the top of existing seams in the waist band.

For the body of the purse…. just turn the skirt inside out…. sew a seam across the bottom… if you want a flat bottom… sew the triangles in either end….. you can find tutorials and better pics by googling if this leaves you confused…..

Flip it back right sides out and beautiful! Easy!!

Sew your  handles in… and bling it….. with belts… rhinestones…. whatever makes your inner princess sparkle!  We now have a great purse and another rainy day filled with fun over spring break.  Enjoy!

Jan

Meet Amara. The latest addition to th family. She is an Araucana chick….3 days old. Her lungs function VERY well

Becca is addicted to pinning ….