Just my imagination

My mother taught me how to crochet when I was about 6 years old. At that time I used to make very loooong chains with scrap threads and nothing more than that. It was fun, but my childhood curiosity didn’t take me too much further: I made little things here and there throughout the years but it was only few years ago that I rediscovered my crochet. Unluckily my mum is no longer around to teach me all the tricks so I have to rely only on my limited knowledge and the web.

All this preamble to say that I made my first crocheted crossbody purse a couple of weeks ago. No template or tutorial here. It just came straight out of my imagination.

I think mum would be proud but she would hint all the – many – mistakes too. 🙂 ❤

Handmade birthday gift

For my Taiko friend Simona’s birthday, a couple of weeks ago, I bought a purse sewing kit and completed the task in 2 hours, more or less. Well, maybe more… Actually it was more difficult than I expected especially because the instruction sheet wasn’t that clear. 

But the result is quite nice, isn’t it? And those purses are always useful. 😄

Swap!

Some time ago my extremely kind and talented friend Giorgia made me this beautiful Totoro, which is a kind of Totem to me. 😄
So, I straightaway wanted to reciprocate her kindness but it took me quite a while to decide how to. In the end I decided for a purse with a handstitched portrait of her lovely four-legged nephew mr Mambo Puppy.
Swaps make me happy! 💗

Wedding purse

I have been invited to a wedding at the end of July (apparently people do still get married!!) so since I’ll be wearing a pair of sandals with a bit of gold in them I decided to make myself a matching purse with some Japanese “kimono” fabric I purchased recently at a stall in a Japanese “matsuri” held here in Milan last month….

It is small but capacious enough, and it is also reversible!

Reversible kimono fabric purse

 

this is how it is shaped…

 

the reverse…

and this is how it looks….

My granny Lucia purse

I think I’ve inherited my passion for re-cycling and up-cycling from my grandmother Lucia.

She was always doing things either with her sawing machine or with her crochet. She often used to buy clothes and reshape them to fit her tastes. And she always embellished tableclothes and bathtowel with lace and decorations.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about her while making this my new project… You won’t ever imagine where the outer fabric that I used for this purse, came from… No clue?

Well, some time ago my brother asked my mother to shorten the sleeves of a shirt he uses for work and the light blue fabric is the remnant!

I unstitched the sleeves and ironed them to remove the signs of the old seam and then I added some interfacing to make it stronger. I didn’t have enough fabric to make the string too, so I used the one from the lining that can also be seen on the corsage.

Then I followed the template that I found on the Sue Kim‘s “Bags the modern classic” book …. and voilà!

The instructions on the book were very clear and detailed and I didn’t have any problem at all. I also added the corsage for an extra touch… I think my granny would be proud of me! 😀

my brand new purse

the up-cycled purse

Detail: made by me! 🙂

Detail: corsage