Little Creek Pink Houndstooth
PURSE by Aynn Lackey
I design and hand piece each one of my purses in my Little Creek studio on our eastern Oregon farm. My felt is prepared using wool fiber sheared and processed from my very own flock, consisting of Texel, Border Leicester, and Dorset breeds.
My fiber is processed by a family-owned woolen mill that needle felts my fibers for me to dye, cut and sew. From winter snows, to summer heat, each fleece sheared reflects a year in the life of our ewes.
T O O L S & M AT E R I A L S • • •
Buttons: (2) Coordinating fabric: 4" x 12½" pieces (2); 4½" x 28½" piece (1); 3¾" x 28½" piece (1) Felted wool or any non-fraying fabric: 11" x 8" pieces (2); 1¾" x 1¾" pieces of felt for button accents (4)
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Fusible interfacing Lining: linen/cotton blend 11" x 8¾" pieces (2) Magnetic snap or hook & loop tape Pinking shears Ruler Scissors
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Sewing machine & thread Sewing pins Wonder Under: 3" x 11" pieces (2) Wool blanket binding: 18" x 1½" (4)
TECHNIQUE Use ⅜-inch seams unless otherwise noted. Trim the bottom corners of the bag with a slight curve. Cut two pieces of interfacing ⅜ inches smaller than the felt, center, and iron to the back. Pin two handle pieces together and topstitch. Repeat with the other two pieces. Place handles on the facing side of your bag and pin in place 2½ inches from the top edge and 2 inches from the side. Sew the handles on and begin stitching 1½ inches from the top edge of the felt to the bottom of the handle. Center and iron Wonder Under to back. Before removing the paper backing fold the long sides over ½ inch and press. Remove the backing, place approximately 1¼ inch from the top edge of felt, pin in place, making sure that it is centered from left to right and hangs over the edge. These pieces will cover 1¼ inch of the handles. Iron in place, then topstitch ¼ inch along folded edges. Using pinking shears, trim the edges and pin below handles. Topstitch in place using an X design. Center buttons and hand stitch in place. (Apply an interfacing 50
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if you have chosen a lightweight fabric for your gussets.) Iron over ¾ inch all the way around and then pin — wrong sides together to the front. Make sure that the fabric panel on the front and back is folded over and pinned into the seam, topstitch and repeat with the back panel. Right sides together, pin the gusset to the front and sew together. Repeat for back. Attach the magnetic snap 2 inches from the top raw edge of the lining fabric. Fold top edge over ¾ inch and press. Insert lining, matching the gusset seams, wrong sides together, pin and topstitch around the top.
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When you assemble the snap use an oval piece of plastic milk jug on the back. The plastic will be sewn into the top seam and will provide rigidity.
Visit Little Creek Lambs Woolen Designs at www.oregontexels.com or www.littlecreeklambs.etsy.com.