Quilted Purse

In my last blog I mentioned the 'Towne Girl" quilted purse kit which I bought with my gift certificate. Well, I finished it today and it turned out really well.  The other great thing is that there was enough fabric included in the kit that I can make myself another one! All I need to do is buy another 16" zipper and of course the batting.

I read through all the directions first before I started and then had to decide which fabric I was going to put on which part of the purse. Then after washing and pressing the fabric, I cut out the pieces. The 2 outer sides were cut 12" x 15" and the inner fabric sides were 11" x 15". I made the the inner pocket part first. I changed the pocket sizes somewhat from the directions.

inner fabric with pockets

Next I machine quilted the 2 outer sides to the batting and cut them. Then I made the outer pocket (5" x 8") and the flap (2" x 9") and sewed it on one of the outer fabric pieces.

After that I made the zipper case around the 16 inch zipper and then made the handles. The zipper case was a little tricky since I had never sewn a zipper before, but the directions were very good and quite easy to follow.
I decided I wanted the handles longer then the directions indicated, so I added 4 inches. I also wanted the handles to be thinner than the directions (because of past experience with wide handles on my quilted tote bags.)  I cut the batting for the handles 1 1/2" wide and used the 4" wide fabric to wrap around that. After pressing a 1/4 seam along the outer edge, I sewed a lengthwise seam down the handle. Then I folder the handle in half lengthwise and sewed it together to make a handle 26" x 3/4".

purse sides, plus zipper case and the 2 handles

I followed the directions to sew the zipper case on, then the handles on and after that I sewed the front to the back, wrong sides facing with a wide seam approximately 5/8th. Last I turned it right side out. Voila!

Finished "Towne Girl" bag

 6 inside pockets...

The only other thing left to do after that was to fasten the zipper case to the sides of the bag.
I'm quite pleased this how it turned out and I'm eager to start another one, maybe make the outer pocket and flap a bit bigger still.