Purses and Pigtails!

I am happy to announce that I consider myself to have officially conquered my 2011 sewing challenge. I tried to sew a purse the other day. The end product turned out to be a purse. boo-yah! I did it!!

My friend Maria suggested this fairly simple project that can be found at this website I found the pictures/directions to be a bit confusing in some areas since I am a newbie to all this sewing stuff. In fact I made a couple large mistakes because the directions and pictures weren't clear on a couple points (at least to me). But I also figured out what the problem was, and ripped out some very long seams...but the purse was still completed eventually and it looks like a purse so who cares how many mistakes I made?

I kept it really simple and did not put any extras on it. I didn't make a button to close it because that will just get in Kayla's way. I also didn't bother with a pocket inside.

Also, the other day it suddenly occurred to me that I have been so focused on being able to put Kayla's hair up in a ponytail that I completely forgot about pigtails! So I had to try them out of course, and they are adorable. How could I have forgotten about this easy, cute child's fashion statement?

I had to make my own pattern using her dimensions. I think I did pretty well.

So here are some closer looks at the purse I made. You can see by the shoulder straps that I didn't really understand her directions there either, but that's ok. Kayla actually picked out the fabrics herself, which is impressive because the color schemes of the two fabrics actually matched.

And here are some fun shots of us girls hanging out together at home.