Baggies Full of Foamcore...

I promised to show you foam core bags today....Here we go.

The easiest way to make these is with leather. No covering card stock shapes, just covering the block.

For this, you need a small block of foam core the shape of the purse you want to make. In this case I simply chopped off two of the top corners of the block. Next you will need a small scrap of very thin leather.

The turquoise one is suede on one side and smooth leather on the other. The other one is blue suede and smooth leather and it's trim is red lizard skin. I think that this is printed into the leather....No. I didn't go out back and grab one of my collared lizards! They are still safe and sound. Besides, who ever heard of a bright red lizard?

As you can see in the first photo, I glued a piece of suede to the foam and trimmed it so that the edges were about an eighth of an inch all around. Then I clipped the corners. You don't want the leather to overlap. Do this on both sides.

Now cut a strip of leather the width of the purse. In this case it was one quarter inch wide and long enough to fit around the purse with a generous overlap. This piece will be cut in two, so that the zipper can be laid on top and the ends covered with a second piece of leather wrapped around the bottom.

Incidentally, the zipper is a couple of strands cut from some gold fringe. I like the kind that has a black base thread with gold wrapped around it. This can be found in upholstery trims. See the last photo for this. Speaking of the last photo, here it is!

The straps and trim on the purse is up to the maker. I usually just cut a few 1/8" wide strips and start playing around with them....Since I am trying to keep it simple for first timers, I didn't put on any buckles, etc. I just stuck with the basics.

The turquoise one has the ends of the handles glued over the ends of the zipper. Then I put a tab across the top with a piece of gold finding glued to that. Did I mention that it is all done with white glue? It is.

With the blue one, I used the red lizard skin for the zipper placket and the end panel that wraps around the bottom. Then I cut two handles of equal length and glued one to either side in the same position. I took a third strip and wrapped it all the way around and over lapped it just a bit. I cut a five sided pocket and glued it on the center front. The last touch on this one was a zipper pull, also a piece of finding, glued to one end of the zipper.

OK. Now it's your turn. Let's see what you come up with. If you are stumped for ideas, look at magazines, in your closet or go shopping...The latter is always fun. You have an excuse to buy a new purse to bring home and copy. After all, you are going to have to have it at hand, so that you can measure for accuracy.

I am going back to my workroom now and straighten up the mess that I made doing this. I tell you, it is a never ending job....

See you tomorrow.