I’m back!  Wedding is done, and new grandson has been sufficiently cuddled for now. As promised, I’m going to explain the remaining steps for the Smocked Bridal purse I made.

To refresh your memory, I talk about the previous steps here and here.  I’ve been tinkering with this project for a while and I’m pleased with the outcome, however, I have some tweaking to do for the next one I make.  I used the Upstyle pattern from Esty, found here.  Their frames are very high quality and the pattern is easy to make.  However, I don’t care for the loose sides that will fold in unevenly, making the frame look off-center, as in the photo above.  That’s a tweak for another day.

In my second post about the purse, I described using a stay to stabilize the pleats and support the embroidery.  It was much easier to do the silk ribbon embroidery this way because all of the ribbons and floss were actually secured to the back of the stay instead of the pleats.  Also, the pleats didn’t shift around.  They stayed in position which made consistent stitches much easier to make.

I blocked the smocking to the size of the frame and then steamed the pleats.  When the smocking was dry and cool, I secured the stay to the top of the smocking.  I stitched 3/8″ from the top cable row, then I trimmed the top to 1/2″ from the cable row to the cut edge.

Next, I needed to control the fullness of the gathers along the bottom of the pattern piece.  The original pattern instructions place the pattern piece on the fold of the fabric, but there is also an option for one way designs and I used that.  Add 1/2″ seam allowance along the bottom of the pattern piece and cut two.  I measured the distance from the top of the pattern piece and marked the same distance from the top of my smocked piece.  Then I stitched 3 rows of gathering stitches and distributed the gathers until I was satisfied.

The gathers were stitched to the stay along the bottom seam.

Then the stay is attached at the sides along the seam line.  I also stitched around the cutting line to control the gathers in the seam allowance.  Then I trimmed just outside the cutting line stitching.

I stitched the back of the purse to the front along the bottom seam.

I pressed the seam open.  Here you can see where all the embroidery threads have been secured to the stay instead of the pleats.

Here is the fusible fleece being attached to the wrong side of the purse.  I only fused the fleece to the back of the purse and to the back of the smocking.  I DID NOT fuse the bottom gathers or the area of the silk ribbon embroidery.  I didn’t want to crush the embroidery through the fusing process and I didn’t want to crease the gathers.  I did fuse along the sides where the fabric is flat.

Here is the purse all assembled.  The lining is interfaced and there is also a Peltex inner structure.  I forgot to take pictures of the frame being attached, but the instructions included in the pattern are very good.  I was skeptical about a glued frame but it seemed to be very solid.  I was pleasantly shocked.

I think the smocking adapted to this pattern very well.  I have to work out a better design for the sides so I think I’ll dig out my mother in law’s vintage bags and do some research.

I also forgot to take a final picture in good light.  The lighting in the church wasn’t very good, but I think it’s a pretty picture anyway.