Bag Ladies - Miranda & Mini Miranda

Tuesday night was the final night of our May Bag Ladies Club. We made either the Mini or the regular sized Miranda Bag. There were 5 ladies in the class for May. Lu & Diane also made Mini ones as well, but I missed taking a picture of them. The ladies all went home with a finished bag after two night of class. I love teaching classes with my mom and this one was fun since it was a bag I knew how to make very well.
Laurie with her Miranda.

Linda with her Miranda

Wendy's Mini Miranda

MIL Birthday Purse

My MIL is celebrating her birthday tomorrow and she asked me to make her a purse. I used several patterns, but used the elements I liked the best and made this purse for her. Paul cut a piece of plexiglass to go in the bottom. Here's a picture of both sides. I didn't know how I was going to do the top, but I made it work. It's not perfect, but I love it. I think I may have to make one for myself when I get back. The girls at work would have taken it home with them if I'd have let it out of my sight today.

MIL Purse

My MIL's birthday is on Saturday and months ago she asked me to make her a new purse. She wouldn't tell me any colors other than peach/blue spring colors. I really wanted to use the new Object of My Desire charm pack and coordinates we got in, so I picked one up and a yard of each of two coordinates. I figured if nothing else, I'd make a tablerunner out of the left overs.
The last purse I made her was the Towne Purse from Lazy Girl Designs. We both love the size, but I hated how the zipper went in and didn't like the pocket on the front. I love the Miranda and the Mini Miranda, but both are too big for her and she wanted a zipper. I looked through all my other books, patterns, and couldn't come up with one I really thought was perfect, so this is a conglamorative effort of patterns and my own playing. It's not done, but I thought you'd like a sneak peek.
I used 16 charms, cut in half, with a couple cut in quarters and offset them like I did in the Mom and Me bag a while back. I sewed each row, then used fusible fleece and pressed the first down, added the second and did quilt as you go for both sides. I cut them down to 11x15, the size of the town purse. I added 5 1/2" pockets on the front and back, leftovers from the piece of lining I cut. Those will be for keys and cell phone.


Then I made pockets similar to the Miranda bags and added those to the lining. I sewed the zipper in between the lining and outer edge. I do have extra lining to cut off after I figure out how it will all come together. I'm next going to figure out how to cut out squares on the top to square it off as I did on the bottom, then I'll sew it all together like the Miranda. I was too tired and didn't want to mess it up last night. Then I'll add handles from the same fabric as the pockets below. In a few days I should have a picture of the finished purse.