Small Purse

Amongst the mundane tasks of the weekend there was a little bit of excitement.  Our Mango graduated from high school!  Ok, so maybe it was just advanced dog obedience class, but she still deserves a little bit of a shout out for all her hard work.  Now with her several diplomas proudly hanging on the wall she is now displaying her new skills by barking at all the neighbors and refusing to drop the ball!  Hmmmm...guess she is still a puppy and we love her in any event. 

In other news it was a tax-free weekend in Florida.  So it was off to the outlet mall to take advantage of some good deals and of course, no tax.  I wrangled in quite a few deals, including some t-shirts for $2.99 each.  I certainly couldn't pass up that deal, so I grabbed a few and plan on adding a little bit of Nae Chic styling to them, so be on the lookout.

And not to leave it to the last topic, but onto the Carry Me: 20 Boutique Bags sew along project of the week.  I had all the intentions in the world of making 2 small bags this weekend.  However, with my distractions plus a non-intentioned movie I have yet to get the second bag started.  But what do you think of this one?  I have to say I was on the fence about it, but as it started to take shape I gradually began to fall in love with it.  I even took some extra time (in between the 10+ doggy walks) and hand embroidered some extra detail on it.  As has been the case with the other bags, I made some slight modifications.  For starters, this bag didn't have a pocket, so I added one.  The pattern called for a leather button closure, however I wasn't all into the button closure style, so I changed it to a magnetic snap.  And the last modification was the handle.  I decided to go with a fabric handle versus the leather one that was called for; I think it still turned out pretty good.

All in all, I really like the way this bag turned out and have so many ideas of how to make further modifications to it.  I'm sure you will be seeing this bag, or verstions of it in the future.  I particularly like the way it nicely fits under your arm for easy carrying. 

For comparison, here is the picture from the book of the "Small Purse" (the one in the front). 

Enjoy!