Purse Tutorial from Sara Wills

I asked Sara Wills to post here today because she is a friend of mine and a super creative crafter, so I thought you would enjoy seeing one of her projects. You can visit her blog to see her other projects as well as her family's new life in Atlanta.

Hello fellow Krystle followers! I'm Sara, a fellow blogger and stay at home mom to an amazing little 16 month old girl! I never thought of myself as a girly girl until I had a daughter and now my life has become pink, pink, and more pink, with plenty of bows to go around -- and it was all my doing! I suddenly became a huge pink fanatic! My daughter, Eliana, is a spitting image of me and loves to mock everything I do. Recently she has started carrying a gift bag around on her shoulder, like a purse. So I figured what can be better than a cute little purse of her own, made by mommy!
I went to get my supplies and decided on some fun fabrics! I love bright colors and fell in love with this combo!

So I started my search online for a toddler purse tutorial. Let me start by saying, my sewing skills are VERY mediocre, at best! I haven't sewed in YEARS and even then, it was very minimal, with help. So, I needed a detailed tutorial and something somewhat simple. I found this blog and mostly followed her tutorial step by step. I found the tutorial very simple, until it got to the complicated part and then, it got a little difficult for me.

It could just me lack of knowledge, or maybe it was just that confusing. But either way, I ended up with the straps of my purse not sewn correctly so I had to kind of wing it a bit to correct the mistake, because there was no way I was unpicking all the stitches of basically the whole thing to redo it. So I ended up having to sew my straps on the inside of the finished bag, which made the stitching show on the outside of the purse. In an effort to cover the stitching, I decided to add some little ribbon bows to the outside of the sides and the result, in my opinion, is really adorable!

I added the fabric flower on the outside and embellished it with a little bling! The result, I think, turned out great! I was very impressed with myself, as this is the first sewing project I've done that hasn't looked like someone sewed it in the dark!

I had really intended to do a full tutorial for this, as I had trouble with the last one, but in my frustration of my mess ups I missed taking some crucial pictures along the process, and I think the tutorial would be really difficult without it. But the tutorial I used got me through most of it and hopefully it will be easier for the rest of you to understand. Now I'm anxiously planning to make my darling a little apron with the left over fabric! Happy crafting!

Thank you Sara! I think the purse is adorable, just like everything you create :) Thank you again for sharing it with us!