1895 dinner gown-purse

All the blogs I love have little tutorials on how they did things. Since this is my first one, I’m just showing you pictures of how I followed the instructions. Duh. Lesson one to you newbies out there…if it comes with instructions….follow them!

Step 1: Purchase the clasp for your purse. I got mine at www.madamesmercantile.com.

Peacock clasp from Madame's Mercantile

Step 2 is tracing the clasp and then drawing the shape you want under the clasp onto a piece of paper.

My pattern

Step 3: Cut 2 lining and two of the fashion fabric.

Step 4: is the fun part…embellishing your purse. I chose to only do one side (I was on a time crunch…I needed it done in an hour!). I chose a beaded strand I had in my stash.

Wired beads.

I used a length of these beads for my head band and will likely use the rest to decorate the cape for the outfit when I get to that…After Christmas perhaps? This is how they look on the bag.

Beaded purse front.

Step 5: Sew the sides of the lining together. Sew the bottom of the lining together leaving a 1-2 inch hole. OK. So I didn’t read that part about leaving the hole in the bottom and caused myself all kinds of grief later on.

Sewing the lining right sides together.

Step 6: you sew the sides and bottom of the fashion fabric, right sides together.

Sewing the fashion fabric

Trim the curvy edges and turn the fashion fabric inside out? Inside in? Outside out? Then stuff it inside of the lining.

Stuffing the lining.

Step 7: Line up the edges of the fashion fabric to the lining and sew them together.

Sewing the top edge.

Step 8 is where you find out that leaving a hole in the bottom of the lining is a good plan because that is where you reverse the bag so that the lining is on the inside of the bag and the fashion fabric is on the outside and all the right sides are visible and the seams are invisible. You then hand sew that hole in the bottom shut.

Step 9: Hand sew the bag onto the clasp being careful to keep the hinges free. Add a chain to the clasp. I just used some chain I had in my stash but I believe you can buy some at Madame’s as well.