Ruffle Purse

Well, with Christmas quickly approaching, and us moving in about 2 weeks, I wanted to get the kids teachers' gifts finished before I needed to pack up my sewing supplies.    This is one of the gifts I finished.  Once again while browsing through pinterest, I saw this great idea.  The great thing is that the bag is part of a three pack from Walmart (if your store still carries craft supplies)for $6, and the fabric I ended up picking up there too.

I bought 1/4 yard of each of these three fabrics.  I didn't even come close to using it all for the one purse. But my intent is to make three purses (each a little different than the other), so I got a little extra.

I cut 4 1/2" X 19" strips for the ruffles.  Then I hemmed the three sides, bottom, left and right.  The top I did not hem because it is going to be stitched onto the purse, and hidden under the other ruffles anyways.

Then I layered the ruffles on the purse (a total of 4) and drew a light pencil line for where I wanted them to end up, being careful to overlap so the seems wouldn't be seen.  I stitched a quick seem on the top of the ruffle, and pulled the thread to cause it to ruffle a little.  Then I pinned and sewed it on the line I had drawn.  I did the back and front separately.  Each with 4 ruffles.  However, when I sewed on the back ruffles, I made sure they lined up and overlapped just a tiny bit, so it looked more like a continual ruffle.

Here are the rosettes I made in contrasting fabrics.

There it is, a ruffle, rosette purse.  Teacher gift number 1, done!