Happy Dance: Tudor Purse

Two finishes within a week! Never mind that I actually finished a seminar piece within 6 months of the class.

The spangles went on fairly quickly. I'm a little disappointed that they look more silver than gold, but they're cheap plastic spangles. I'll save the expense of metal spangles for a piece that will be displayed or used more frequently than this will.

Mary mentioned something about the openwork look of my plaited braid. The gold thread I used is referred to as "No. 7 gold passing thread" in the kit instructions. The thread might be a bit thinner than what might authentically be used for plaited braid in this situation, but it's not completely baseless. In the collection of photos of historical pieces studied in the class, Chris Berry included a close-up of this panel. The peapods in the center are similar to mine. The plaited braid used on those leaves was somewhat open too, though not quite as much.

The assembly of the Tudor Purse was a bit more complicated than that of the Blueberry Pocket. There is a layer of thin quilt batting between the outside and the liner. Both the outside layer (inside out) and the liner (with batting attached) were sewn up the sides. The outer layer was turned inside out, then the liner was inserted. The top seam allowances for both layers were folded in and stitched together. Handmade braid was used to trim all of the seams, with handmade tassels attached at appropriate points along the bottom. More braid was used for the strap. Yes - that braid took a long time. It's made of 5 strands of purple and gold thread.

The time it took to put this together was worth it in the end. I hope you agree!

On a related note, I need to reply to Annie's question about the Jane Zimmerman Elizabethan piece. Sorry, Annie, but those instructions were only available during Jane's Christmas sale that ended on December 28. It was a bit cruel of me to post a picture after it was no longer available. :-( UPDATE: Jane Zimmerman is offering this again through March 31! See her site for details. (And thanks to Megan of Elmsley Rose for letting me know!)

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Pregnancy ticker: 32 weeks, 4 days.
Yes, DH brought another project in to me. Hopefully BJ can hang in there until I finish Catherine Theron's Examplar IV, which really won't take too long!