My First Change Purse with a Sew-Purse Frame

Change purse made using tutorial at Sweet Bee Buzzings.

Well, I stepped outside of my comfort zone and finally made something with a sew-in frame.

I have wanted to try using one since I discovered the beautiful glasses cases at Humming Needles.

A few months ago, I bought a small sew-in frame at JoAnn Fabrics and searched on-line for a tutorial.


Special thanks to Bethany at Sweet Bee Buzzings for sharing a tutorial, complete with a pattern to help newbies like myself!  (Click on the link above to go to the tutorial.)

In the 5th grade, I made a wonderful friend.  I think I spent almost as much time in her home growing up as I did in my own.  Over the years, we have been separated by distance.  However, our friendship is one of those magical ones where regardless of the number of months or years that may have passed, every time we meet up it as if we just saw each other yesterday.

This friend is also wonderful about mailing me a birthday card and a Christmas card every year.  Sending cards is not one of my strong points.  She is always in my thoughts, but I rarely get a card out into the mail. So, this year, I thought I would surprise her with a gift.  (She should be all the more surprised, as it is arriving quite late.)

I traced the change purse shape onto muslin and basted this creamy white fabric into place. Then I stitched on a monogram. (I traced the "J" in reverse onto the back of the muslin with a very light lead pencil, using a monogram from The Magic of Crazy Quilting: A Complete Resource for Embellished Quilting by Marsha Michler.)

After stitching the "J", I added vines and flowers - hoping they would be far enough from the edges.  (In the future, I will stitch the bottom section one-fourth to one-half inch higher.)

Front of change purse

At this point, my gift had missed its deadline.  So, I gave myself a week to gather my courage to follow the tutorial and make the change purse.  (It was not as hard as I had feared!  Silly me...)

Back of change purse

A peek inside the change purse.

After sewing the frame in following the instructions on the tutorial (although I used size 8 perle cotton because I did not have size 5 in the right color), I went through with another strand of perle cotton and a size 28 tapestry needle to stitch a bead over each of the holes in the frame.

Now, I am eager to attempt more projects with sew-in frames!  (A good thing, as I ordered a couple from CrazyQuiltingSupplies.com that I am anxious to try out!  That is also where I picked up the size 8 pink perle cotton used to stitch the "J" above and the variegated pink used to sew in the frame, as well as the pink and green silk ribbon used on the "J".  Note: I am not affiliated with their website.)

-Renee

Updated 4/20/2015: This post was linked to the Monday Stitchery Link Party #2 at Super Mom - No Cape!