New Addition! Crop 2013 Handbag

Introducing the newest addition to the Grounds Collection, the Crop 2013 handbag! This bag includes a few sewing firsts for me and for the entire collection made to date. A quick tour around the details...

First, you'll notice the leather handles. Yes, leather (the real deal)! This is my first attempt working with leather, and it turned out fantastic. I love the warmth it brings to the bag with the added benefit of its strength. I purchased the leather handles with pre-cut holes since I don't have any leather sewing needles for my machine. Using the holes as a guide, I hand-stitched the handles onto the outer fabric and the inner interfacing. I did not catch the inner lining as I didn't want the stitches to show on the interior. If I did want them to show on the inside, I probably would have use my machine to guide the needle through each hole which would have been much faster. I'm hoping to get more experience working with leather and eventually grow a collection of leather tools.

Second, I've included an interior, magnetic snap closure to the bag. Again, this was my first time learning to insert and work with these snaps. I reinforced the area with craft-weight interfacing to ensure that the constant pulling apart of the snap doesn't snag the surrounding fabric. The magnetic is quite strong and great quality, so I expect it will hold my contents inside the bag when I fling it into the passenger seat of my car every morning. :-)

Third, the inside of the Crop 2013 bag has both a zipper pocket and two open pockets. They are on opposite sides of the interior lining. They keep everything in it's place - from earbuds to the ten different kinds of lip gloss that I found in there when cleaning out my old purse last night. Who knew!

Overall, I designed this bag so it would be not only a challenge, given the new elements I worked with as mentioned above but also a colorful and fun summer purse. Unfortunately, this bag is unavailable for purchase in our Etsy shop. Please send me an email or Facebook message if you are interested in creating a custom order, and I'd be happy to recreate something like this tailored for you.

Have any recommendations on working with leather? I'd love to hear them - leave me a comment on any tips or tricks you might have!

Thanks for stopping in,
Erica