This week, I finally got to make the new handbag I had planned (hoped) to accomplish for my Mom.
The idea started when I was playing around with some embroidery designs - getting the general hang of combining individual designs into a single design, that is. I came up with this design and knew immediately after I finished it that this would be a new handbag for my Mom.
She loves hummingbirds and recently had been remarking that she needed to find a new bag before her current one finally fell apart.
The bag that Mom had was exactly the style she really liked. For a few weeks, I kept trying to secretly get measurements of it but that was not so easy. I really wanted this to be a surprise for Mom so I didn't want to all of a sudden start asking her about her bag. That would be weird and probably tip her off and blow the surprise.
As luck would have it, she found a "new" bag at a consignment shop and gave me the one she liked. (I take old bags apart to reuse the hardware.) And, she mentioned that she didn't really like the "new" bag, but it would do until she found one she liked. Score - I could now use her bag to make a pattern for the new bag I planned!
I started by taking the original bag apart. This almost took as long as the actual remake assembly, but it was worth taking my time as it has some reusable pieces. And, the original bag was the design that Mom really liked.
There are many steps and pictures that show how the bag was disassembled here.
Once the original bag was completely pulled apart, I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the pieces were in good condition still and could be reused in the new bag! The pieces that were too worn to reuse would be traced and new pieces made.
The entire inside section was still great - this is good news and will save many hours of recreating it - especially since the top is slightly curved.
Once the bag was all in pieces, I started forward with building the new bag. You can read all about this processes here (and there's more pictures too).
As with any project I dream up, there were lots of changes in design and ideas, but I love the way it came out.
The entire project start to finish took about 25-30 hours. (Not that I was timing it, just a general guess based on the days I worked on it.)
I originally planned to give the new bag to Mom as a Mother's Day gift, but I couldn't wait. I gave it to her yesterday - along with a matching wallet and basic tote bag (for groceries) that I was able to make with the rest of the matching fabrics. It was a hit!
