"Pirensess" Purse

12/8/09: Pattern pieces with basic instructions are here (US Letter) and here (A4).

Heidi had a birthday party to go to this weekend so it was time to sew up another reversible purse. She picked out the fabrics again -- solid pink for one side and a vibrant pink design for the other. (Picking out fabrics is much easier to do since the cleanup since everything is visible--and guess what? it's been a week and I've used stuff from it and yet it still looks the same! but so does the other side of the room, the messy side!) Loved the unexpected orange she picked out for the flap and straps! Here's Sophie modeling it with the monogram side out.

I drew the 'm'; probably should've asked Heidi to do that -- amazingly, she's been drawing "bubble letters" since age 4 -- but I'm not quite there yet in the giving-up-control department. It was hard enough for me to let her cut it out, once we'd fused it to some felt (for stiffness and thickness). But she did a great job. I need to remember that for all the next times... Then we fused it to the flap and I zigzagged around the edges to make sure it stays put.

When I asked Heidi what we should put on the "other" side, she said it should be a princess purse. So I ask her to design the crown, and let her cut that out too. (I added the diamond and topstitching though -- it needed just a little more than the bobbles on top, I thought.)

Not sure why the fabric looks so purple in the pictures above. Below is a better representation of the colors. And I love the card Heidi made to go with it...

And what I see the birthday girl clutching tightly in her arms when I picked Heidi up from the party? ...a Webkinz kitty. :)

Speaking of crowns, here are a few more pictures from a year ago... The girls and I made some simple cardstock crowns to help celebrate Fasching (also called Karneval, a big celebration right before the Lenten season begins. Germans don't really celebrate Halloween, but the kids do get to dress up in costumes for Fasching.)

The girls wore them everywhere for a few days, including to the grocery store (where they hardly attracted any stares since it was Fasching after all) and also on our trip to the train station to pick up Daddy, who we hadn't seen in 3 weeks! They also kept adding to them -- coloring them, gluing on "jewels," and more. They soon became too heavy and cumbersome to actually wear! : )