Lydia's Easter Purse

While I like to sew, it has never occurred to me to sew our Easter (or Christmas) outfits.  I do like for our family to coordinate and I usually end up adding some fun, handmade accessories to help unify the look.  This year, Lydia was wearing a gold and silver cotton dress and I found a grey dress with some lace trim.  PJ had a gold and grey striped shirt and a golden yellow blazer already in his closet.  We not only coordinated with each other, we coordinated with the "What is it Going to Bee" party color scheme!  I figured I would make Lydia a hair bow and also use the ribbon to make her Easter basket match her look.  But when I saw this little straw purse at a thrift store, I decided to work a purse into the outfit too.

First, those old, ugly flowers had to go.  (OK, they didn't really go away.  I am saving them for some other craft project someday.  They have a nice vintage feel, they just don't work on this project.)

The purse already looked MUCH better in its stripped down state!  However, there was that one area of more open weave pattern at the top that was just screaming for some type of accent.

I wove a thin grey ribbon through that area and tied it in a bow. Big improvement!  At this point I had also made a hair bow to match the silver and gold in her dress while coordinating with the grey in my dress.  I laid the purse and the bow next to the Lydia's dress to see how everything looked. I decided that the purse looked OK as it was, but that it would look EVEN BETTER with a fancier bow, like the hair bow.

I slipped the clip from the hair bow through the middle of the grey ribbon that was tied to the purse and decided that it was worth the effort to make a second hair bow to have the purse look a little more finished.

Here is the finished ensemble.  I asked Lydia to pose for a picture and then I asked her to hold the purse so that I could see it.  I love her VERY LITERAL interpretation of my instructions!

That's better!  Happy Easter!