A Papercloth Purse...

I bought Kelli Nina Perkin's book "Stitch alchemy" over a year ago. I love it, I go back to it time and time again for inspiration. In the book, she gives instructions for making papercloth. Not only do I love to make papercloth, the technique has become the basis for my embroidered collages. Layers of tissue paper, decorative paper, old paper...

One of the projects in Kelli's book is a papercloth bag. I decided six month ago that I wanted to make one. I designed the pears and embroidered them, then I started to procrastinate; I am not a seamstress and I will admit to being a little afraid of my sewing machine...

Well Monday I finally decided that I needed to complete this bag. I had to alter the original design (the one in the book) a bit mainly because I chose to put some quilt batting inbetween the papercloth and the cotton lining. This created alot of bulk so I improvised with some gross grain ribbon (I also forgot to put some kind of closure on the purse - I originally was going to use a magnetic clasp -oh well!).

This was an experiment, I'm hoping that I constructed the papercloth strong enough to withstand the abuse that I put my purses through. I did find this project very fun though and I'm considering making another one - although this time I think I will remember to put some kind of clasp or flap on it to close it up. I'm no Vera Bradley but I have to admit I really like the way it turned out! Have a Blessed week:)