I have recently discovered the website for BurdaStyle, a pattern company. On their website (www.burdastyle.com), they even offer some free patterns that you can print out on 8.5″ x 11″ paper, glue together by the edges, and cut out! Score!! 🙂 I was pretty excited about this, since patterns can sometimes be kind of pricey. Many of the patterns are by Burda, but quite a few have been posted by really talented registered users who have designed their own items. Plus, any registered user can post photos of their finished item right with the pattern, so you can see how well it works. (I have found the key to ensuring a satisfactory product at the end is to see a real-life version of the object, not just a designer’s sketch!) There are loads more cool things about this site that I haven’t even begun to explore….
So, friend of mine from church works at a local furniture store and has access to the discontinued upholstery swatches that would otherwise be tossed. She had offered to bring me some fabrics if I wanted them, and I was going to ask her when I saw her last Sunday. But she beat me to the punch! She brought me a bag of goodies– a nice pile of fabric swatches! I was *so* excited. I of course had found a pattern for a cute handbag on the BurdaStyle website and had grand plans for these swatches!
I finished my bag yesterday. It would have been finished on Thursday night, had I not broken a sewing machine needle sewing through about 8 thicknesses of upholstery fabric (I should have known better! 😛 I bought some leather needles to sew through the thick parts now) I am hoping to use more swatches to make more of these bags in the future– my mom has already requested one– without even seeing this one finished 🙂
It takes about 7 12″ x 24″ swatches to make the whole thing out of upholstery fabric… though in the future I may use some sort of muslin or cotton for the lining.
This bag is SO cute! I love it!!!
Thanks, ebenezers!
[…] 25, 2008 by gardengeekette Remember that black and white purse? Well, since then, my friend has given me a treasure pile of upholstery swatches! So I’ve […]
[…] I’m keeping myself busy with lots of sewing projects! I have sewed several more upholstery swatch purses since the last ones I posted about, and I have a few more on the docket. […]