Sew I Am: I guess I'll call this one...FOILed Again. Maybe.

...because...y'know... It's what I did with the sticky leather and adhesive transfer foil experiment I showed a few posts ago.

As mentioned in that post, the ultimate goal was to make a purse, and...then I realized I needed to order some things--specifically, a new pack of leather sewing machine needles (because I didn't want to trust the durability of the one remaining leather needle I had had for...approaching 20 years?), two proper purse zippers (instead of scavenging whatever seemed vaguely appropriate from my zipper stash), some heavier thread, and webbing to use as the strap. Probably my smallest and most intentional Wawak order ever.

I ordered on Friday, which was when I also started prepping the leather pieces, cutting them to size and applying layers of fusible webbing and embroidery stabilizer and interfacing to the centers of the pieces so they'd be a bit sturdier than they started

I measured what I cut, but I eyeballed the positions when I fused things on, so everything ended up as slapdash as normal. That's a sheet of baking paper, too, because I wanted to make absolutely sure the leather finishes were completely protected from direct iron heat.

The order arrived on Tuesday and I balked at starting proper assembly work until Thursday evening, when I decided to work on this instead of sewing through the pile of pieces cut out for doll clothes.

I did have a bit of trouble with...sigh...the foiled leather sticking to the presser foot while edge stitching, but that's because it has a weirdly aggressively sticky finish and I still maintain that most leather and vinyl can be sewn beautifully by only changing to a leather needle. When the sticky part wasn't up, things sewed as well as they could with my machine and that medium-thick leather. The needle survived without breaking, though!

And now I have a one of a kind purse that might not be that great, but I made it and it's finished and so shiny that I'm happy

Betcha didn't expect the accent color to be white, huh? (I mean, unless you paid attention to the first photo in this post.) Yeah, well, the only intentional parts of this project were the things I ordered, and what those are was determined by the design I'd finagled out of the second hand and experimented-upon leathers I had acquired from generous people.

I feel like the white accent areas increase the Barbie-ness, too, which is more than fine.

The round slider was something I already had in the "buckles and buckle-like items" stash, as was the D-ring. I don't think this particular slider grabs the webbing too securely, but that D-ring on the end of the strap should keep it from coming apart completely, and I can always tack the strap in place at the slider if I need to.

Oh, the thread. It's a 100% polyester (because I know that the chemicals involved in tanning leather can destroy cotton thread) tex 60 Gutermann, and it distinctly reminded me of dental floss, without actually being anything like dental floss. I chose white to coordinate with the accent color when top stitching on the foiled pink. It could have been heavier--as could the needle I used--but...it wasn't.

Moving on.

I didn't have enough of the foiled or white leather to make the bottom, but I do have a lot of dark pink so decided to use a small amount of that. The first piece I cut and interfaced turned out to be too short? I cut a longer piece but didn't want to fiddle with reinforcing it and quickly decided that I'd use it as-is, then stick the slightly-short original piece inside the bottom with double stick tape. Maybe I should have done something similar for the sides, but it's fine.

I did trim the insides of the corners, but I probably should have taken a mallet to some areas, too. I acknowledge their state of nonsmoothness, and I move on.

I used a light purple textured ny...lon...? synthetic of some sort for the lining. I thrifted it years ago and have used it sporadically for linings ever since. It feels like the amount of it in the stash has never diminished.

I installed the back zipper in an inset and it's not the cleanest work but this is the side of the purse that will be against my hip so no-one will see it. It's fine as long as you don't look too close.

I am very happy I remembered to order the purse zippers--I have a purse project I started in 2019 that the choice of ~~cranky old~~ vintage metal zippers made me put away and think of only with ire ever since, and the coil zippers n my stash weren't in weights or colors that...well, I had decided that I should at least attempt to do this project "right," and that included ordering zippers made for purses, and in a color that coordinated with my materials.

But.

Once I started actually sewing, I decided I didn't want to deal with constructing an inner divider and or pockets for the main compartment of the purse and decided to use a zip bag instead, to hold the things I keep in my purse but almost never actually use. I hoped I could use one of the last zip bags I made, but the sizes weren't right.

I had enough window screen left to be the right width. I chose this striped fabric for the rest not because I was particularly enamored with it, but because pieces of the right size were already cut (left over from a long ago pair of pants made for the kiddo.)

I didn't want to leave it completely plain, so I poked through the appliqué box and chose this image that I scanned from an ad in an old magazine and printed on clear ink jet iron on film in the early 2000s, then ironed on to a random bit of ivory poly cotton a few years later. Then, it sat in a bag...waiting...