purse v 2.0

Despite the fiddliness of attaching the frame last time, I really enjoyed making the Japanese kit purse so decided to make another with some of my own fabric:



Thanks to the lovely commenter Michaela who directed me to this tute, I discovered that you can also attach purse frames with fabric glue. Which sounds messy and disastrous, but really turned out to be quite easy. Especially with aid of UHU all purpose adhesive, which is jelly like and quite forgiving in the early stages (eg you can shift the fabric around and wipe the glue off easily before it sets).



If I can get my hands on some good purse frames here (I bought the one above in Nagoya and it's much slimmer than any I've found online), maybe I'll put together some kits. With fabric, interlining, purse frame, pattern and instructions... what do you think?

little japanese purse

Nothing beats the challenge of trying to decipher crazy sewing instructions that are completely in Japanese. Luckily there were lots of diagrams included in this kit, which I bought from a craft shop in Nagoya (Leslie might be able to get you one):


It was an interesting learning experience It looks pretty similar to the picture, but I didn't take in enough of the side seams so the mouth is actually too wide for the closure. It does funny things on the side when you try to close it.


I'd also never tried this sort of embroidery before, but it wasn't too hard. Happy with how the birdy turned out.


Oh my god have many of you tried fitting one of these little purse closures? They are sooooooooo hard and frustrating to work with!! I dented mine quite a bit trying to press the metal closed around the fabric. The kit came with some thin rope that you stitch along the top edge of the fabric before fitting. It helped, but it was still veeery fiddly. Any tips?