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| My Wave Purse Organizer free PDF... |
Not that I knew any of this at the time. But it's certainly something to keep in mind.
One of the easiest ways to appeal to the masses is to come up with something simple, yet useful. But I get that once we start "designing", it's almost our normal impulse to do the opposite in order to challenge ourselves... what a paradox!
I originally revisited this pattern a little over a year ago when I discovered that Nekane had featured it on her blog.
Last spring, I became aware of a bunch of WPOs made by a Craftsy member. She had done what I had been wishing people would do — take the pattern and run with it. In the second part of my original posting for the Wave Purse Organizer, I had listed a bunch of ways in which the project could be varied. Barbara did just that.
So of course, I had to reach out to her to get her thoughts! First, take a look at her "collection" here:
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| Several of Barbara's WPOs... |
The first one at the top is made per my original specs. The second one has an elastic holder on the back. The third one is again an original. The fourth one is two-sided and features an elastic pocket! And the last one again has elastic on the back.
Barbara says, "I made the first one as per instructions, but, as always, I had to tweak the next one a little. I wanted the back to be useful also, so I added elastic into the seams before turning. As the pockets were being sewn, so was the elastic. The elastic was good for things such as a comb, tissues, and small bottles like hand sanitizer..."
Here is one that she scaled up:
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| Barbara's customized WPO... |
It is larger to accommodate "other stuff" as you can see and the "wave" has been taken out of it. What is it, though, is quite lovely... the fabric was apparently a gift from a friend who had been to Jakarta, Indonesia.
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| Other views of the upsized WPO... and its matching "little sister" |
"The two sided purse organizer led to the larger version for a tote bag. When on a plane or at the beach, I want to find my iPad or ereader, snacks, fast too. With a little planning, the front and back pockets don't need to be the same size. They are not even the same height."
Then there is also this two-sided one:
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| Another customized WPO from Barbara... |
"I was determined to get two sided pockets. I just played with the fabric until I could fold the fabric up on both sides. It may be just as easy to add a separate strip on the back and sew up both sides of the pockets at the same time, but, hey, the challenge was the fun part."
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| Barbara's leopard collection! |
About the project in general, Barbara had this to say: "I love organization and being able to see what I have in my purse. The WPO does the trick. I can see what I want, use it, and put it back in its proper place. I love making totes and purses, so the two obviously go together. If I am going to have a purse for every outfit, I need to transfer my goodies over quickly too."
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| An elastic along one side does the trick in holding all sorts of things in place! |
"The WPO is easy to make and a great way to use up scraps of fabrics. (When you buy 5 yards of leopard print fabric for $3 at a garage sale, you have to make something with it. Don't ask!)"
LOL... I'm sure many of us have significant yardages of bargain material just waiting to be put to good use! Why not try a WPO today?
And thanks, Barbara, for giving me some outstanding examples to feature!
P.S. I had originally wanted to update this tutorial with instructions to make one with dual sides but time got away from me. However, I have lately come to realize that there are so many free tote bag patterns available online, that a tote bag sized organizer would be the way to go. Many of the free tote patterns are just for a basic rectangular bag; i.e., projects meant for beginners. My thought is that if you can later make an organizer that would fit inside any of these, you can effectively add whatever kind of pockets you like to any simple tote bag... guess it'll be one of my "to do"s for 2016.
I have never made a purse organizer before. I prefer to make my bags with enough pockets for the things I want to have in a bag. But I can see these organizers would be really useful for store bought bags or bags you might already have that you like but wish they had more pockets. The best thing about them is they can be removed or added when you want to.
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