The workmanship does't end with a purse's pretty trims, embellishments and extras - they count too...
*Embellishments:
A lot of people, (including myself), love the extra "pretties" that give handmade purses their charm and character. I use pretty hardware when I can and when it's appropriate, but I also love to use various kinds of trims in some of my bags, such as piping, metallic trims, and my fabric flowers.
While pretty, it's important that these trims and little extras are securely attached. With the exception of my romantic dress purses, most of my cotton purses are made for every day wear, and the trims are attached in such a way to assure they'll last for the life of the bag.
Many of you have seen my winter purses with the ribbons and vintage brooches. Not only are the ribbons tack stitched, (by hand), to the yarns, the brooches are tightly sewn by hand in several places, securing them to the yarns. They are going nowhere!! If, for any reason, an emellishment should come loose, all I ask is that you return the bag to me, and I'll reattach it - it's part of my guarantee!
With my crocheted purses, all I ask is that you treat the purses with care to safeguard the anitquity of the vintage brooches. By doing so, when the purse has finally seen its better days, you can clip the tacking threads and enjoy the brooch for years to come as an adornment for your clothing!!
My fabric flowers are machine stitched to the purse as well as multiple catches with needle and thread to secure the decorative button in place. All cording and piping trims are tightly bound, and my trims are securely attached with machine stitching. Care has also been taken to attach any trims as "seamlessly" as possible, encasing the ends, (where they meet), in the side seams as unobtrusively as possible.
Notice how the gold trim in this purse meets in the side seam in a way that's not obvious that it's a seam.
And, another of my signature themes is my inside pockets. Being a very frugal person, I love to fashion fun pockets made from the trimmed scraps of material from the purse exterior and lining fabrics.
You'lll see a variety of pocket treatments in my purses, ranging from decorative bands to geometric patchwork designs, including a sunburst pattern in one.
I often like to decorate pockets with decorative machine stitching in a theme that matches the overall mood of the purse.
All this piecing and sewing takes time, however fun it may be, and each pocket is truly one-of-a-kind, as are all my purses. No matter how pretty the outside of my purses may be, I want the inside to be a "silver lining" or "secret garden", so to speak, as an indulgence for the user of the purse!
One of my most popular purses, (and one with the most hearts), is my ribbon embroidered silk purse with beaded accents. The ribbon and beads have painstakingly all been sewn onto the purse by hand, and while this particular purse is not made to endure heavy duty wear and tear, with care, it certainly will maintain its grace and integrity for a lifetime of romantic evenings and outings, and then some!
One last signature items that I seem to be using in more and more of my purses are my tied shoulder straps. I find it terribly annoying to constantly wrestle trying to keep two shoulder straps in place - one is always fallling off, and I find it a terrible nuisance. While across the body wearing solves that problem, for some, it's not always practical. I found a solution that's not only practical, but stylish, and that's the knotted strap!! I haven't seen this treatment anywhere, and hope that the buyers of my purses finds this to be a handy solution to the falling strap problem! You'll notice that the purse in the very first photo illustrates my signature knotted strap technique.
Well, that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed my series, and that buying your next fabric purse on line will occur with the help of these posts, no matter where you make your purchase. Thanks for visiting my blog - please ll return soon for more news and eye candy!
Take care, everyone!
