Yet Another Placemat Purse...

[loves2experiment]

Great job on this bag. What a cute placemat !! I love the beading accent and the handle, too. How did you get a flat bottom on it, and what did you put in the bottom to make it hard ?

Also,(sorry for all the questions!) how did you sew on the straps, by hand or machine and what type of wire did you use for the handles. I'm  impressed, can you tell?!!!

Love your schnauzer by the way !!

Thanks for your kind comments    After folding the placemat in half and sewing both sides, I pinched together the lower corners of the purse and sewed it to form the rectangular base.  To make the bottom hard, I measured the dimensions of the rectangular base and made a cardboard form.  Went through my fabric stash and sewed a little slip cover for the cardboard form.  It's a loose piece but it seems to stay where it's supposed to!  For the handles, I used a non-tarnishing silver wire and hand-sewed the loops (refer to earlier post) to the purse.  Whew...that was a tad wordy 

[loves2experiment]

That is adorable! I want it! And I want four more placemates for my table!

Question...do you have seams on the inside or did you line it somehow? I tried a placemat bag but ended up making it the same as any other bag because i couldn't figure out how to make it look good with the seams inside still.  So much for the simplicity of a placemat bag.  Any ideas?

The seams are all on the inside and the purse is not lined.  I didn't line it as I wanted to retain it's character as a placemat purse.  When I made the purse, I too, was irritated by the 'untidy' seams.  I ended up handstitching the seams to the inside of the purse so that the seams laid flat against the inside of the purse.  Drat.  I wanted to take a detailed picture of the inside seam and my camera just died    If you wish, I can try and take a picture when the batteries are done charging!

[arrhythmia]

I'd love to see a pic of the inside seams. Maybe you could zigzag over top of them to get them to lie down. If you did a contrasting color, it might seem part of the design.

Just a thought.

Thanks for the info, I need to try this out!!

[loves2experiment]

arrhythmia, the zigzag stitch idea has its merits.  If you make a placemat purse and zigzag stitch the seams, I'd love to see a picture of that!  My batteries are semi-charged (the dang thing takes too long to fully charge!?!) and here's a picture of the inside seam:



As I mentioned, I handstitched the untidy seams so that there are no visible seam-related stitches on the exterior of the purse.  What can I say, I'm fussy  

[craftykate]

wow that looks great. It doesn't even look like seams really. I was expecting messier. It looks good.

[arrhythmia]

Thank you for the pics !! I would have to find a great placemat to make a purse, first, but if I do, I'll try out the zigzag stitch and post it.

You must be a dandy handstitcher....no visible stitches at all , that I can see. Woohoo!

[loves2experiment]

Thanks guys    To be honest, I've had tons of practice handstitching.  I used to make fully-jointed miniature teddy bears (~ 2 inches) and they were all handstitched with nylon (invisible) thread 

[llagu12]

evening all ... i just found this site and am loving it ... on the subject of placemat purses ... is anyone out there still making them? .... just curious .... thanks .... Louise ... smiles

[suddenlysandra]

Super bag - I like all the beads!

[LDesjardin]

Wow! that's really pretty. I  think the handle really finishes this one so well. Beautiful job.