Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Red Faux Suede Purse Prototype

As the February Red Month theme continues, I have made a prototype of a cross-body purse that I actually need. I have been needing a good, sturdy, large enough cross-body bag for my stuff and my toddler's stuff when we go out. My old purse is on it's last legs and I haven't seen any suitable purses at my local thrift stores.

I thrifted this upholstery grade red faux suede from my local thrift store last year. I had always planned to make bags/purses out of it. There is almost a metre of this fabric which is lucky for me because I should be able to make a prototype or two out of it.

I have been thinking and planning in my head about this particular prototype for a while. I like cross-body bags because I usually have to struggle with 2 active willful kids and I have no arms left for a purse. I also need a purse with many compartments so that I can store call the coupons, library cards, points cards, little crayons and stickers for my toddler, a basic change of clothes for her, a small pot of homemade moisturizer, my phone, a tablet, and of course my bulging wallet. I know that's a lot to carry around all the time but I'm with my toddler all day long so I don't want to have to pack and unpack stuff all the time.

This is how it turned out:

It's okay but not exactly how I wanted it to turn out. First, it's not big enough for all the stuff. Second, since it's a prototype I just used whatever I have in my stash for the lining. I use a medium weight denim as the lining for the outside zipper welt pocket. And then I used a coated cotton for the inside lining. All that has added a lot of bulk to the bag. If I had use a good sturdy polyester lining fabric the bag would be a lot less bulky.

Although I'm not completely pleased with this one, I'm happy that I tested out the ideas in my head and I learned a lot about making the zipper welt pockets. I test wore this bag today and it's okay. So I'll just have to do some minor design tweaks and change the lining fabric to something more appropriate.

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