Ruffled Purse

I saw this wonderful ruffled purse years ago and even bought a pattern to try to make one....but never quite got around to it...I also saved an old dress of mine out of the 90's to use for the fabric...but there it sat in my fabric pile.  Until.....I saw Alisa Burke do a fabulous make over on a simple $2.50 raffia bag from Target...Hmmm I thought this would be an easy way to get that bag done!!!  :)

 So here is my "Hippie" Dress although I still liked the fabric...You can see why I put it away a L-O-N-G time ago!!...

The first thing I did was cut down the seams of the different fabric panels.....

I the measured the top of my bag.  (32") I now knew I wanted to about double that to make my ruffle.

I cut my first panel so that it was 4" wide and then sewed a very loose running stitch at the top to gather the fabric.  I pinned it to the top of the bag and then glued it.....EASY!!!

I then added my second and third ruffles gluing them high enough under the top one so the was no straw or raffia was showing.  To cover the unfinished edge at the top of the purse I glued a beaded ribbon.

I already had clear plastic handles left over from my "Felted Bag Stage" (I sold them at craft fairs)... Anyway the idea was to cut the handles off the purse leaving about 2" to run threw the bottom of the new handles securing to the inside of the purse...does that make sense???  (It's past my bed time).   So here it is...

My brand new "Ruffled Purse" made out of an old dress...Total cost was  $2.50...The price of the Target bag....Everything else I had laying around the house....Even the beads around the top...The funny thing is my favorite ribbon of beads weren't quite long enough so I used different beads on the back side.  ;)

Thanks for visiting!

Denise

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