Thursday is Purse Day - Elephant Purse

Let's mix it up a little - sometimes Thursdays have a theme and sometimes they have purses.  In the Thursday is Purse Day series, I'll show you purses I made and explain the process/inspiration behind them.

This is the front of Elephant Purse.  The back and the front bottom are made of elbow patches - hence the oval shape.  The fabric is rayon and has an African vibe.  I pulled the turquoise color from it and used it in the beads and yarn.

The front flap is supposed to look like elephant tusks - the three large glass beads in the center also had a tusk-like feel to me.  The flap is a Timtex sandwich with the rayon fused to the front and back.  I did two rounds of zig-zag stitching around the edge - one in black thread, one in turquoise.

The front and back are hand stitched together with regular cotton thread (dumb idea!!)  This was one of my first purses, before I learned that Silamide (waxed nylon beadstring) came in a wide range of colors - including turquoise!  I used the prepunched holes in the leather, but it was still hard to get the needle through and line up the front and back holes.

This is an inside, upside-down view.  Most of the beads have a functional purpose.  The horizontal line on the rayon "tusk" front cover is used to hide the thread that attaches the glass tusks.  The small rows of vertical beads between the front and back are the hinges on which the front lifts up.  A little bit of eyelash yarn trims the bottom front edge (which is in the top of the picture.)

This is the back and was the inspiration.  It was a piece of an African bedspread I bought at Wisconsin Quilt Expo many years ago.  

I really put my sewing machine through its paces by using a satin stitch to sew the cotton to the leather.  Hurray for Elna sewing machines!!