Molly's Sketchbook: Lovely Liberty Coin Purse Kits

Coin purses are one of my favorite things to make because they are so useful and make such great gifts.  They are also amazingly easy to sew, which you might not know because usually their instructions are in Japanese! Sadly, I don’t speak Japanese but luckily purlsoho.com’s Mari does. A little while ago she helped translate the pattern for one of the purses for us and a whole new world opened up! The Cute Japaneses Coin Purse stands out as one of my all time favorite Purl Bee projects and I actually still use it to this day. I’ve made many more coin purses since then and I love giving them as gifts, people often can’t believe that I actually made them!

Recently we got in some adorable new coin purse handles with big prettily colored ball closures and I knew I had to make some more coin purses. I wanted the fabric I chose to be as special as the handles so I chose Liberty of London Tana Lawn for the outside. (Maybe you’ve noticed, but the Purl Bee is having a Liberty moment right now. We are just totally in love with the new prints we’ve received and I personally want to sew with it all the time!). For the lining I chose another Pursoho favorite, Shot Cotton. This lightweight Indian cotton comes in the most incredible jewel-like colors!

Page, Joelle, Whitey, and I all helped to pick out the beautiful color combinations that I ended up with. We all liked them so much that we decided to offer the handles with our fabric selections as kits, which you can find at this link!

Materials

• One Lovely Liberty Coin Purse Kit available here. Each kit includes fat-eighth's of Liberty of London Tana Lawn and Shot Cotton, interfacing, thread, glue and one large size purse frame (5-inches wide x 3.5 inches tall to top of clasp) There is enough fabric in the kit to make 2 additional purses.  The large photo above is for the Coral kit, we also have kits in four other colors, pictured in the 4 small photos above (clockwise: Ivory, Amber, Jade, Tortoise Shell).  Please note: color names refer to the purse frame closures rather than the fabric.
• You will also need: Pair of pliers, a long pointy object like a small gauge knitting needle that you don’t mind getting dirty and a paper bag or newspaper.

If you don't want a kit, we also offer just the purse frames in large, 5-inches wide x 3.5-inches tall to tip of clasp (as pictured above), or small, 4.25-inches wide x 2 3/8-inches tall to tip of clasp. 

Finished Measurements

Approximately 5-inches wide x 5-inches tall from bottom of purse to top of clasp.

Cutting

The instructions that come with this handle are in Japanese but even if you don’t read Japanese (which I don’t) you will use the pattern template that comes with it.

 

Above is a semi translated version of the pattern. Disregard the japanese instructions and use the pattern templates to cut out two outer pieces from the liberty, two lining pieces from the shot cotton lining and 2 small interfacing pieces as directed in red.

All pieces are cut on the fold which is represented by a dashed line on the pattern.

Here are all the pieces you will have after cutting.

Sewing

Sew the short curved side of one of the interfacing pieces to the middle of the top of the wrong side of the lining piece, lining up their middle folds, with a scant 1/8-inch seam allowance as shown above. Repeat for the other lining and interfacing pieces.

Sew the lining pieces right sides together with a ¼-inch seam allowance along the bottom curve, leaving the top side open.

Sew the outer pieces right sides together in the same manner. Pin the lining inside of the outer portion, wrong sides together, along the top open edge. Use a lot of pins and make sure the side seams and notches match up nicely.

 Sew the lining to the outer portion along the pinned edge with a 1/8-inch seam allowance.

Attaching the Handle

To attach the handle you might want to put down some newspaper or a paper bag because the glue can get a bit messy.

Since you’re dealing with glue try to have everything ready before you start so you can do all the steps before the glue dries. You’ll need a pointy object like a knitting needle that you don’t mind getting glue on, a pair of pliers, and an extra piece of scrap fabric.

Open the handle and squeeze some glue into both of its open ridges as shown above. Be a little sparing here, you don’t want too much glue.

Next, using the knitting needle, spread the glue evenly across both sides until the insides are fairly evenly coated. Wait about a minute for the glue to dry a bit and get tacky.

Before you start to attach the handle make sure that the handle and the purse are correctly oriented so that the lining will be on the inside and the handle will close properly. Then, starting at a hinge, wrap the raw edge of the purse slightly around the paper rope that came with the handle and then push the rope into the glued handle ridge as shown above. You can use the knitting needle to help push it in, especially around the curves.

Stuff the raw edge of the fabric into the handle in this manner all the way around, making sure that the side seams match up with the side hinges of the handle. The top of the purse should fit perfectly all around the handle.

You will have excess of the paper rope, just cut it at the side hinge of the handle.

If the purse isn’t fitting correctly into the handle or the side seams aren’t lined up don’t be afraid to pull the fabric out of the handle and start again.

Finally, wrap the handle in a piece of scrap fabric and, using the pliers, pinch it tightly shut around the fabric and paper rope in several places. The coin purse is now complete.

There will be excess glue on the handle and some on the fabric as well. Just wait for it to dry and it should disappear on the fabric and peel off of the handle pretty easily.

Make sure to get the glue off of the inside of the handle as well and it will be all done!

Comments

[Lisa G.]

The cutest things ever!

[Bonnie@whataboutpie]

These instructions were very precise and great! Thank you, I think I have the confidence to order one now!

[Jennifer]

I've never felt sure enough of my skills to attempt a purse like this before, but your illustrated tutorial is making me think I could actually do this. Thanks for another great project!

[Karen]

Is there an actual pattern template somewhere? Can you provide rough dimensions for the pattern pieces?

[purl bee]

Hi Karen,
The template comes with the purse frames whether you buy the kit or the handles. The finished size of the purse is approximately 5 x 5 inches, so you should have at least 2 pieces for the lining and two pieces for the exterior that are 6 or 7-inches square to make the purse.

[autumn]

do you sell only the purse frames? they're ultra cute!

i've reblogged your fantastic tutorial. =D

[Charlotte / l'Atelier]

This is a great tutorial. I think I'm going to try it.

[Rosário]

From Portugal, thank you. It's a great tutorial.

[Faith Clifford]

I just made a coin purse and the bottom shape is not like your pattern. When I checked your pattern is 1275 and mine is 1075. Mine has a notch at the pattern and does not have a nice rounded bottom edge.

Second question: why put in the paper? It does not seem necessary.

[purl bee]

Hello Faith-

The coin purse pattern you have is smaller than this one and put together in a slightly different way so it will look different. I believe you can follow this project journal to put it together:

http://www.purlbee.com/cute-japanese-coin-purse/2008/4/17/a-cute-japanese-coin-purse.html

Instead of paper we recommend that you use Interfacing. It is not necessary for the bag to work but it does give it a nice amount of stability and makes it more durable.

Thanks for your questions!

- Molly

[Diane]

I started printing the directions from your site but 18 colored pages? Do you have just step by step printed directions without pictures that may be copied ? Thanks

[purl bee]

Hi Diane-

There is a printed copy of the pattern included in the kits which you can purchase here:

http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/item/7736-Olympus-Lovely-Liberty-Coin-Purse-Kits

Otherwise we recommend that you copy and paste the text of the pattern into a Word or text edit file, attaching only the photos you need.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your question- Molly

[Lisa]

Oh Purl Bee you are the very best! I have always wanted to know how to make a coin purse and I love me some Liberty. Can I come & live amongst the goodies in your store?

[Delicious_Alarm]

It would have been REALLY nice to know that this tutorial was not applicable to the other purse sizes prior to spending the evening struggling with applying your tutorial to my template and smaller clasp size! The link from the Purl website where I purchased the small coin purse clasp brought me here. It was only after reading the comments that I found a buried reference to a tutorial for the smaller size! Turns out that the smaller size has darts. Yikes, let's try this again.

[Molly]

This is an adorable coin purse, thank you so much for this tutorial. I am wondering what the trick is to make the corners look neat? I finished one, but the raw edges of the fabric are coming through the hinges...Any tips?

Thanks,
Molly

[purl bee]

Hi Molly-

Sorry to hear you're having problems with it. It's all just trial and error getting it to look right. I tore mine out until I got it where I wanted it before I closed the frame around the fabric. Since yours is already done you might try adding more glue and pushing into the frame again. Hope this helps-

Molly

[Susanna]

Dear Molly--

Thanks for sharing these! I'm a bit confused... I see 3 different frames for sale: large 1875, medium 1275, and small 1075. The instructions above are for the medium 1275 purse? I ask because I'd love to sew a set of these in different sizes. Not sure if I can follow the instructions above for the large 1875 size, but I did see in the comments that the small 1075 frame can follow the instructions for "cute japanese coin purse". Is this correct? Also, are there instructions for the large 1875 anywhere?

Thanks!

[purl bee]

Hi Susanna-

I can certainly understand your confusion! You can pick any of the handles and follow these basic instructions- they are all put together in the same way. If your pattern has a pleat (an you'll know because the shape you cut out of your outer fabric will be a lot larger than the handle) you can follow along with the "cute japanese coin purse" pattern that you reference in your comment.

I hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any more questions.

Thanks for writing in.

Molly

[Lima]

Very cute!
Thanks for the tutorial, I linked it in a series I'm writing for my blog (http://rock-n-roll-stops-the-traffic.blogspot.it/2012/05/diy-from-head-to-toe-9.html#more), hope you don't mind :D