I recently took a trip to my local library to hunt down some books on sewing with knits.  I did find a bit of information that helped me research my post on sewing with knits, but I also found this little gem.  A beginning sewing book that includes 10 free patterns.  I love free patterns, and it is always nice to try something new.  The book is S-E-W, Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp.

The Pattern Box 

The Patterns

As you can see the book itself was a bit beat up.  I wasn't quite sure what I'd find inside the box of patterns.  I expected there to be missing patterns, and cut up patterns, but to my delight every pattern was nicely folded and in it's original form.  The book includes a variety of patterns including a wrap around skirt, a naughty secretary pencil skirt, a  cape mod pattern, an elephant stuffy, yoga pants, boxers, a power tie, and many more.  Apart from the paper patterns there are several written patterns that include dimensions for additional projects.  Honestly, I wanted to sew my way through the book, but I knew I'd never make any headway on my TO DO list.  So I picked out a couple of patterns that I was interested in making (and that I had available fabric for) and set to work.

Modest Maven Purses for Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year I made our mothers these great pleated purses. I followed this free pattern from Modest Maven. She has a wonderful tutorial with pictures to accompany written instructions. This would be a great beginning sewing project, and it would make a great gift for any occasion. I added a few personal touches to the purses including: flower corsages that are removable, key hooks, and card/coin purses.

The bags were fairly inexpensive to make. I used mostly found materials. I had some left over fabric from a table cloth that I had turned into curtains. I used it as the shell for the solid brown purse and as the yolk fabric for the houndstooth purse. I also lined the dark chocolate purse with the fabric from a pair of ripped pajama pants. The houndstooth fabric I had purchased for 25cents at a remnant sale at a local home fabrics store. The thicker fabric worked great. It really holds its shape well. I did invest in magnetic snap closures for the purse, a snap for the coin purse, and the key chain. It was a very easy and inexpensive project. Easy and inexpensive is just how I like it.