amuckart Report post Posted February 22, 2010 Hi all, Here's my first go at a purse based on an example in Olaf Goubitz' book Purses in Pieces. 1.5-2mm veg tan yearling for the body of the purse and a sample bit of calfskin from Pergamena for the pouchlets on the front. The calfskin is thin but incredibly strong and supple. It is expensive but quite possibly the nicest leather I've ever worked with. Unfortunately I didn't have a bit enough piece to make three pouchlets as per the original and they aren't quite as open at the top as they should be so I haven't installed the drawstrings yet. Front. No strap or buckle yet because I don't have an appropriate buckle right now. Access to the front compartment under the small flap. The rear of the compartment is textile as per the originals. I used a bit of linen canvas, which is a bit too heavy. Next time I'll use some heavy apron weight stuff. Lifting the front compartment shows the pouchlets on the front of the back compartment. The leather reinforcing around the edge of the linen is whip stitched on the inside so the sewing doesn't show. Access to the rear compartment Looking down into the pouchlets. You can also see the folded welt in the front compartment here. It adds a bit of decoration and a little bit more internal volume to the compartment. There are no gussets in this style of purse. Side view showing the folded welt and the way the leather for the pouchlets is sewn into the side seam before the purse compartment is turned. Decorative stitching on the pouchlets. I only got this right on one of them but the alternating stitch decoration on the edge is done by controlling the lay of the threads in the stitch not by moving the awl holes. Back view of the purse. I didn't quite get the shapes right after I turned them but it's not as bad as this picture makes it look. The back compartment should also be slightly smaller than the front as per the originals. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
terrahyd Report post Posted February 22, 2010 That is quite a project,,looks very nice ,and a great in progess report, thanks very much for sharing it with us,, Doc... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jana Report post Posted February 24, 2010 Thank you for sharing, you have inspired me to pull my copy of the book out and get busy!! The problem is that I have too many projects that are not finished as it is and I promised myself that I would get them done before starting anything new... Thank you again. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RuehlLeatherWorks Report post Posted March 5, 2010 Great job! It certainly turned out better than MY first attempt!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kiltboy Report post Posted March 5, 2010 Gorgeous! Well-done, I can't wait to see it with the proper buckle and all. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UKRay Report post Posted May 11, 2010 Lovely job, Al - you have managed to achieve the 'look and feel' of an original piece which is so hard to do. Did you make a set of patterns for the whole purse or did you adopt a 'cut as you go' methodology? Ray Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
amuckart Report post Posted May 11, 2010 (edited) Lovely job, Al - you have managed to achieve the 'look and feel' of an original piece which is so hard to do. Thank you. Did you make a set of patterns for the whole purse or did you adopt a 'cut as you go' methodology? I made a pattern for the main panels. I drew it up in inkscape where I could play with all the curves to get them looking right and then tweaked it so a single page of A4 would give me half of all the main parts. I didn't pattern the welt or the pouchlets on the front. The pattern shape for those is pretty head-bending and I generated it by tacking bits in place and easing in the rest until it looked right then trimming off the excess. Edited May 11, 2010 by amuckart Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
