Summer Literary Sewing Circle

Mermaid Purse, 2018

The Summer Literary Sewing Circle, hosted at Following the Thread, focused on the novel The New Moon's Arms which I wrote about over at bibliographic manifestations. For my project I was inspired by the mermaid element of the novel and decided to make a purse with a mermaid theme. I went to the fabric store and found a beautiful blue and teal mermaid fabric and a dark swirly grey. The grey is much more in the tone of the novel, there is a lot of swirling angst in the characters lives, than the mermaid fabric was. However, the mermaid fabric has a magical quality which was definitely part of this novel. I enhanced the magical-sparkly element by adding beads to all the stars on the mermaid fabric on the purse flap and using a fused-glass button that I bought many years ago at a craft festival and had not found a home for until now.

Detail of iridescent beads on stars

The body of the purse is quilted with variegated blue thread in a wave pattern and for the lining I used a pale blue fabric I had leftover from the background of the memorial quilt for my mom. The bag pattern is one I developed and have made many times (including a flowered version). It has 2 pockets inside and one on the back (from the grey fabric). 

I almost made the deadline (which was Friday) on this.