Fussy Cut Circus Purses

Because I'm now sewing for a local brick and mortar shop called The Vintage Street Market in Altoona Iowa, I've spent a ton of time recently getting together items to place for sale. It's taken a lot of my *just for fun* sewing time away but I'm still really enjoying it! Recently I finished these purses. 

I was given some awesome fabric with vibrant prints containing lots of animals. LOOOVE IT! I couldn't decide what to do with it until I now. I wanted to focus on the prints and didn't want them to get lost in a skirt or dress, so I finally chose to fussy cut the images and create purses from them. I chose to use just one of the three prints for this because I'm trying to stay in the theme of my Fall/Winter collection, which is Circus and these prints were perfect for it! 

 Because they're all fussy cut, there's no two that are exactly alike, which I like a lot. To make them, I cut around each image giving enough room to account for the SA. Then I picked where to add the zipper. I then cut 1 of the shape out of the back fabric and another 2 out of the lining fabric. Then I pinned the straps onto the right side of the fabric where I felt they looked best and made sure to keep the excess from the edges so they wouldn't get sewn into the seam. After I finished by sewing around the rest of the image (to enclose it completely) using a 1/4 in. SA. 

Next I sewed around the lining using a 3/8 in. SA to keep it slightly smaller than the outer pieces and reduce bulk. You must leave an opening exactly where you place the zipper. I then folded the SA to the wrong side of the lining and slid the entire lining into the purse with wrong sides facing out. Then I was able to hand-sew the lining to the zipper and create a really clean looking purse. 

I had a few extra little images that didn't really "fit" nicely for the purses, so I appliqued them onto the back along with my logo. These turned out so fun and cute and they're a great way to showcase a large bold print. 

I can't wait to show more of the pieces I plan to make for the *collection* - until then, I'll be participating again this month in the Sew Geeky sewing challenge. This month is Studio Ghibli, a personal favorite and also the Perfect Pattern Parcel #5 Girls edition!