The cows came home!

 Years ago, my sister made this purse/bag. I am pretty sure it is the pant leg from an old pair of jeans, covered in fun stripes, with the jean's pocket with another pocket sewn on. (The pocket tucks inside the purse- I just flopped it out for the picture for visualization purposes.) If you know me, you know that I have been carrying this around since then. I love it. It has been very handy.

However, the other day I was feeling like I would like some change in my life. Instead of chopping off my hair like a normal female, I decided to make a new purse, and I had just the fat quarters I wanted to use.

If you know me well, then you also know I have a weird love of cows (they are all called Norman- it is a City Slicker thing), When I found this fabric I had to have it, but didn't know what to use it on. Now it has a home, and I udderly love my new purse. I ended up using two fat quarters- the cows and an accent swirly print, and some scraps of black fabric I had lying around.

 There were a few modifications that I made to the original bag. I decided that I wanted more pockets because I am forever losing my phone and wallet and keys into the depths of the bag. I cut out the main body parts and liner (mine were 19"x12"), a strap (from some scraps- it started out about 6"x36" so it could be folded over a couple of times for extra durability, but ended up a little smaller than that), and the pockets. For each pocket I cut out two scraps black fabric and one from my accent fabric 6.5"x8". I ended up with one cell phone, wallet, pen pouch pocket cut from the cow print that was 10"x about 5". I added interfacing to the outside body fabric, and the pocket pouches.

 For the cell phone pouch, I ran a gather stitch across the bottom, and an elastic casing across the top. Through the top I ran 8" of 1/4" elastic and stitched the sides to the elastic would stay put. I laid my cow print on the accent pocket and adjusted the gathers on the cow print so it would fit. and sewed a line 1.24" in from one side for a pen pocket, and another line 3" in from the other side for a cell phone pocket. My wallet fits in the space between. So that it wouldn't shift in the next step, I sewed along the edges and bottom, using a scant 1/4" seam allowance

 I hemmed my accent fabric and then layered and sewed together (so stacked that was one black piece with interfacing, interfacing side down and right side up, accent pocket with cow print-right side up, with black piece-wrong side up. Sew around sides and bottom. Turn out).

 See how nicely they fit? I did the same thing for a pocket pouch on the other side of the purse, just without the cow print pouch.

After that I stopped taking pictures. I sewed along one edge of the strap and turned it rightside out. I sewed along the sides and bottom of my interfaced body fabric, and just the sides of the lining. I decided to add a zipper, which was overly complicated and could be skipped. Basically, the last step involves layering all the parts together and pinning- verify that it is pinned correctly- then sew along the top edge. Turn it out. Fold under the lining bottom edge, and sew it closed. Tuck lining back in purse with pockets.
I think I am going to find a carabiner to somehow attach inside near the top, probably in the side seam, so I can have a quick place to clip the keys so they don'e get lost. And I may use my scraps to make a matching tissue cover, like this one, just because I am silly like that.

Did I mention that I love cows? Especially the rouge brown bull in the middle of all the cows. I am pleased with my new creation (-as is Kitty. It might take some convincing so that she knows it is MY purse, and not hers).