Channeling my inner Charlotte Olympia

This past April, I attended Pattern Review Weekend, in Los Angeles. Yes I am a total slacker and have been stalling on making this blog post ever since then.  Any-hoo... as a part of the weekend, there was a contest to make a handbag!

I love both challenges and handbags, and I love to make crazy stuff, so I decided to channel my inner Charlotte Olympia and get to work on a small bag shaped like a pincushion.










The outside is pieced leather over an interior plastic frame, and the pincushion men are made of silk samples that I purchased from Spoonflower and have cotton poplin heads. 

The interior is lined with quilting cotton.

Many people at the Pattern Review event asked how I made the bag, so here is the basic low-down.  

For the basic structure, I used a purse frame set, consisting of two plastic spheres and a hinged metal frame that the plastic pieces fit into. 

I attached a plastic disk (kludged together from cut-up sippy cup lids) to the bottom of one sphere so that my bag would have a flat bottom and I could attach feet to it (the feet went into the four holes).

Once I had the framework of the bag constructed, I made a pattern for the leather outside by smashing aluminum foil around the two bag haves (because I am fancy like that) and marking how wide I wanted the pieces to be. I needed five leather sections, so I measured around the edge of the sphere halves and divided by five, and then just drew a line up to the center point of each piece.

 

Once I had done that, I flattened and cut out the aluminum foil pieces and used them to make a pattern.

From there is was just sewing- I pieced the leather together and attached it to the plastic frames by drilling tiny holes around the edge of each frame (the plastic was very soft so I did this with an exact-o knife) and then sewing the leather cover to it.

To make them men, I printed their faces on cotton poplin using a laser printer (the ink will stay in place if you press it with an iron), and constructed their bodies out of printed silk squares.  Their construction is very simple- each corner of the square is folded right-sides together and sewn for a bit, and then the body is turned, stuffed, and a stitch is run through the middle of the body at the waist.

I attached the men to the sides by drilling holes into the plastic frame and sewing the on.

Voila- the most fun bag that I own!