Made by my own fair hands!

I had a fun day yesterday to celebrate the end of the school holidays (where have all those days gone?!) I took the train to Cambridge and spent the afternoon at a quite delightful fabrics and interiors shop called CallyCo, learning how to make a purse. I'd stumbled across a link to the sewing workshops at the start of the holidays, and booked myself a place. I love all the project bags I have from ThreeBagsFull, and thought it would be fabulous if I could learn to make one myself.

The workshops are held in the cellar of the shop, beautifully fitted out with tables covered in pretty vinyl fabric. Each table had a sewing machine along with all the equipment needed to make a zipped, lined purse. Betty, our teacher, was lovely - so kind and patient. She showed us three sizes of bag that we could make and then it was back up to the shop to choose the fabrics. I chose some bright, jewel-like colours for the exterior and a spotty one for the lining. At this stage, I found it hard to believe that in three hours I'd have a finished bag to show off!
 

 

Betty took us through the making step by step, demonstrating anything that was a little complicated. She was so calm that she made it all seem very straight forward. We were given the option of adding some trim to the bag - I chose some ribbon, while others tried their hand at little pompoms and ric rac.
 

As well as helping us with the sewing, Betty kept us supplied with mugs of tea and delicious, squishy chocolate brownies. Mmmmmmmmmmm! By the end of the afternoon, each of us had finished our purses; they were all beautiful and we all felt extremely pleased with ourselves! I hope that I'm going to be able to make another one fairly soon to practise my newly learnt skills.

 

I added a little heart shaped button to the zipper tag, and also a beaded zipper pull.

I love the spotty lining too!

Now I just need to find a knitting project to go in its new home! See you! xxx