Quilted Purse

Here's a fun little project I whipped up while waiting for my quilt fabric to arrive from Missouri Star Quilt company.  It took me about 4 days to do this purse.  Some of the directions seemed confusing, for example, I didn't know what a gusset was. Yet here I have to make one. Don't we just LOVE GOOGLE!??  The supply list called for 3 different types of interfacing (fusible fleece, Pellon, and Peltex Durabond or "similar substitutes.") but I have no idea what those are either.  There are LOTS of different weights of interfacing.  The one piece was for the bottom of the bag, to hold its shape, so I assumed that was a very heavy piece.  What I used instead (and it worked rather well too) was a piece of plastic from an old lid to a shoebox sized tote.  I cut it to size and slipped it between the  fusible fleece and the "Pellon".  The only problem I had with it was at the end when I had to turn everything inside out, and the plastic couldn't fold up enough to fit through the little hole. I had to make the hole a lot bigger, and that meant more hand sewing at the end of the project.  Not a big deal.  The project used 1 charm pack and three half-yard pieces of fabric.  I originally bought a kit, but now that I know what I am doing, I can make other purses from scraps.  Lots of the fabric doesn't even show, like the charm pieces under the pockets, or the lining of the inside pockets.  It was an interesting project, more of a "sewing project" and a quilting one, but I get a nice purse out of it at the end!

One half of the purse, ready to sew together!

My finished bag!  Let's go shopping now!