From the Brain Archives (Creativity Is Still in There Somewhere!)

About three years ago I acquired several books of upholstery samples from a local shop. (Remember this?)  Most of the pieces are cotton and have several coordinating colors and patterns, but they are small -- not really enough to make one single item from.  Never mind the fact that I had no place to store them and no idea what I would do with them; they cost me all of $2, and what a deal, I just could not pass them up.  I made a few cosmetic bags for housewarming gifts and stuffed the rest of the fabric into a box for future inspirations. A year and a half later we moved them, still unused, to Minnesota, where they have sat in a box for another year and a half, occasionally admired and perused over, but not put to good use.

One particular combination of prints and a soft piece of leather were persistently calling to me, however. They would have made the perfect bag of some sort LAST spring, when the fashionable color was tangerine/orange, but I am consistently ten or twenty or thirty years behind what is fashionable.  If I were to make a tangerine bag for THIS spring, I would be way ahead of myself!

When I finally stumbled across Ikatbag's recent series of purse and bag-making tutorials, I could not resist the inspiration.  That woman is just FULL of creativity!  My purse began to take shape in my mind.

My purse bottom came together from the scrap leather.  The body was pieced from two coordinating pieces of designer cotton.  A third coordinate made a cell phone pocket and one for my pen.  A $1 find at Wal*Mart made the lining, into which were sewn a zipper pocket and one with a button closure.  A trip to the thrift store produced a shoulder strap, which was in its previous life a belt.  Add a bit of elastic, an old button, and many experimental techniques, and ta-da!  I am back in the creativity business:

 

Someone just offered me some more leather pieces. Once again, no place to store them.  But I think they would make an awesome backpack... in about ten years.  :)