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?

Thinkin' thinkin'

Shannon and I went to the Life In Style trade show last night. I'd never been to a trade show before. It was very inspiring and thought provoking - seeing people in a similar field to myself who have taken things to the next step.

It poses a interesting question though - how far do I want to take this fabric venture? It seems like there are two main options. Stick with producing things on a small scale, for sale in my own shop and just a few other places. Or, start getting things professionally produced from the fabric, on a larger scale, selling in shops and doing the whole trade show thing.

I don't know - the latter sounds so very 'huge', but I guess it doesn't have to be. Some people probably just start inching in that direction and before they know it they have a 'range'. Anyway, food for thought.

Meanwhile, I'm looking into making products from my fabric that are a little less labour intensive. I put this little prototype kit together last week (and was quite taken aback to see something very similar at the trade show already - eep!). But anyway, little DIY notebook cover kits with fabric and instructions:





Leave the hard (sorry, fun) work up to someone else!