How To Embellish Your Bag

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**If you have used this tutorial or any others by Pink Stitches, please post your pictures on the Pink Stitches Flickr Group! I'd love to see your beautiful creations and feature some of my favorite projects!**



I bought a beautiful lime green leather purse on sale last summer. It's a Fossil shopper and since I bought it in late August, I got a great deal (from $140 to $30!!). It's pretty but too plain so I added some cute fabric flowers to spruce it up for spring. Here's a little tutorial for you!



You will need:
- a purse
- fabric scraps at least 2" wide (I used jelly roll strips)
- safety pins
- needle and thread




First, press the strips in half (length wise)



Set your sewing machine to the tightest tension (mine is 9) and the longest stitch.



Sew along the raw edges of the strip, using a 1/8" seam allowance. Do not backstitch. You are going to create a ruffle so you need the thread ends to be loose (if that makes sense).



You'll be left with something like this.



Start rolling the strip from one end, lining up the raw edges as you go.



With your needle and thread, sew together the ends that you are rolling.



Roll a little, then stitch again. Repeat until you roll up the entire strip.



Before you fasten off the thread, grab a safety pin and sew onto the bottom of your flower. Fasten off.



Turn your flower around and spread out your "petals" to make it look more like a flower.



Make as many as you want for your purse. You can even play around with the measurements of the fabric to make smaller or larger flowers.



Attach them to your purse with the safety pins and admire your work!



These flowers would also look really cute on shirts, belts, the sky's the limit really! Have a great Monday!