CHRISTMAS PURSE - A MODIFIED REBECCA

Last week, when Sourkraut (I'm assuming that's not your real name?) over at Langes Fadchen, Faules Madchen posted that Bev at Flamingo Toes was offering the opportunity to download one of her purse patterns for free, I jumped on it right away. I also follow Flamingo Toes, but I had missed this particular post. Anyway, since I have my own little purse shop on Etsy, I wanted to try to make Bev's cute Rebecca Shoulder Bag. Be sure to go to the link above to see the original.

I had just finished some custom purses for an Etsy client, and I had a bunch of this fabulous green fabric left over (thank you Laura). Then I remembered, that a friend of mine had given me a bunch of fabric, in which there was this really cool red and white faces pattern (thank you Heidi). Hmmm... red, white and green? I could make a way funky Christmas purse.

So I had the fabric, but I didn't have a zipper or strap rings, and I wasn't going to be at a fabric store anytime soon. The Rebecca would have to be modified. After my success at making my Princess Leia gown without a pattern, my confidence for this modification was high.

Here is my version of Rebecca...

Since there was to be no zipper, I had to come up with another closure method. I copied the ruffle detail from the front, and added it to the back - with extended length, to create a flap. I figured, since I will only be carrying this bag one month out of the year, a zipper for ensuring secured purse contents, would not be missed.

Since I had no strap rings, a big modification would have to be done to secure the strap. I cut the strap to the same length as the pattern indicated, but I pleated the sides of the purse to make their width match the width of the strap. My overall strap length is shorter than the original, but it works great.

The inside of the bag is constructed as the pattern indicated. Love the detailing on the pockets.

Since I also did not have any type of snap closure, I just used velcro to hold the flap in place. I then made a rolled fabric flower out of some coordinating Christmas fabric I had, to dress the flap up a bit.

So what do you think? If I were to make this again, I would definitely add some interfacing throughout to make it a little sturdier. I'm sure the zipper would help with that, but honestly, I'm not a fan of sewing in zippers.

Bev and Sourkraut, thanks for the inspiration

I'm linking up here... be sure to go there to check out all the other incredible projects.

This project was Featured here...