Pleated Change Purse

My old change purse was dying a slow and painful death. I had used it for many years and filled it to the brim with change; it was fraying and filthy and far from its once cute state. So instead of purchasing a new one, I thought I’d create one with some of my fabric scraps.

I had a basic idea of what I wanted to do: a small purse with a zipper closure. Simple enough. I didn’t really follow any directions because what I needed to do was fairly straightforward. I selected a sturdier cotton fabric for my change purse (left over fabric from my navy skirt). Instead of doing the bare minimum of using two flat pieces of fabric to create my change purse, I decided to use inverted pleats as a design element. It wasn’t that much more difficult; I just had to use a bit more fabric for the width, measure where my pleats would be, press the pleats down and then baste the pleats in place. It’s simple but I think it adds some nice visual interest.

The second thing I did to make this change purse a bit more interesting was using a contrasting zipper color. I happen to have this cream-colored zipper and thought it would match well with navy. It was my first time shortening a zipper (which turned out to be super easy). As usual I made mistakes along the way, but it was a good small (and necessary) sewing project for me.