The New Life of a Vintage Sheet, and Good-Bye Zipper Issues...Maybe

So I think I figured out my small zipper issue... maybe.

I decided to make some coin purses a bit larger than the ones I had previously made and used larger zippers.  This seemed to work, but I think they worked only because I realized I was sewing the coin purse wrong at the point where the zipper was.  I was folding the zipper in the wrong direction, therefore making the coin purse kinda pucker since the zipper was sewn in place.... in the wrong direction.  Does that make sense?

That was one of those times where you have to stop what you are doing....move away... and do something else.  Otherwise you get caught up in your mistake and momentarily become insane by continuing to repeat your same mistake over and over again hoping to have it magically work out.  I tell my daughter all the time when she gets frustrated when working on a craft or even homework "Step away, take a deep breath and do something else for a bit"...now I just have to remember to take my own advise.  Let's see how the small zippers work out next time I attempt the smaller coin purses.

On a non-zipper note I've made some purses out of the vintage sheets that I have been obsessively acquiring, and OMG they are sooo freaken cute (If I do say so myself).  I love the purse pattern as well.  It's a pattern from Made by Rae called the Buttercup Bag.

Back in December I had made a purse out of this pattern, just before I started blogging, which ended up in my sisters hands, and I loved it.  It was black with a cute oriental parasol fabric for the lining.  In my near future I see myself making another one for myself; since I seem to be a solid colored purse type of gal for my everyday use.

Purse exterior.

So back to these vintage sheet buttercup purses.  This pattern just seems to fit perfectly with these floral patterns.  I've been ready for spring...and some rain... hello rain are you out there?  Looks like we are gonna have a sad wild flower season from the lack of rain, but at least I can get my flower fix while whipping out these so spring-y purses out of these once loved and reclaimed to love vintage sheets.

Here the purses are flipped inside out so you can see the great interior fabric.  Inside has pockets.  The large purse has one pocket split in two.  Perfect size for your phone.

The small purse, I think, is a great size.  The exterior pattern is designed to be cut out of one fat quarter, which I love especially when working with new patterns.  It hurts my heart to use up a large amount of fabric on something that might not work out as expected.  Plus the small purse is a great size for an evening out; for your keys, wallet and other small necessities.  The large pattern will work best for my daily use since I like carrying around soo many non-essential items.

On another blog Artsy-Crafty Babe she has talked about how she's used Mulsin in leu of interfacing to keep the softness of  the vintage sheets, but to still give the purse some stability/thickness, and she is sooo right.  I would have hated to use interfacing to stiffen up the flowy goodness of these vintage sheets.  Not only do they look good, but they feel good too... nice and squishy.

Both purses will be posted in my Esty shop this week.  Leave a comment if your interested and I'll set up a special reserved listing for you.  I'm thinking $12 for the small one and $21 for the larger one, plus S/H (well $18 for this particular one since there is a small imperfection in the stitch at the top of the purse where I bumped into the button...oops.  So the stitch is straight then curves over the button....then straight again.  Note to self.... place button 1/4 inch lower next time.)