Designs and inventions

I always feel a little funny talking about "this new purse I designed" because really, what is a purse? Some kind of sack to carry stuff in. And as far as I know, there are a limited number of forms that a purse can take and still be useful, and most of those have already been invented, or designed, if you will. Yet every day there are new purse, tote, and bag patterns available for sale. I should know, because I own most of them! There are dozens of tote patterns, and when they are distilled to their essence, they are mostly boxy containers with handles. The decorations are different, the proportions are different, but in the end, if you were to invent a truly different tote, it's doubtful you could make one that works. For example, a REALLY different idea would be to make a tote with no opening! Now, that hasn't been done! Uh, for a reason.

So it is with some trepidation that I am going to babble over my new purse design. I have, as previous readers will know, been someone who has a perverse need to invent the wheel over and over again. Every time I set out to make a purse, I page through my stacks of patterns, then my stacks of books about bag-making, and then I start cutting up fabric and sewing it together without really knowing how it's going to turn out. And so, every time, I have "issues" that come up because I change my mind mid-course, or I haven't thought through just how this part is going to come together, and so on and so on and so on. But now that I have decided to put my years of bag-making experience on the market on Etsy, I am thinking that I need to develop a basic design that I can repeat (with cosmetic differences from bag to bag so that I don't bore myself silly). So I have been thinking about that, and letting it run in the back of my mind for weeks, until sort of suddenly yesterday it gelled into a sketch and then a paper pattern. I am ridiculously excited about this, especially considering that it's sort of a basic sac (or SACK) just like a million other purses before it. Yet THIS basic sac is exactly the proportions that I cut out, exactly the shape I had in my head, and so I guess it is rightly mine. And the best part is that it's simple enough to sew that I can spend time and energy tweaking the looks of it from bag to bag instead of figuring out just how THIS seam is going to meld into THAT seam. And then ripping out THIS seam and THAT seam and starting over again.

I was so thrilled about it that I did something I never do. I actually made up the purse in muslin to try out the proportions and drape, and whether I had overlooked something in the construction department. Since it is a simple design, that part didn't worry me much, but still, I figured why not waste a yard or two of muslin before cutting into a dreamy length of, oh, let's say, super-soft cotton corduroy upholstery fabric?

I'm still in the middle of making up the real thing and haven't taken any photographs yet, but I'll keep you posted. Just don't expect anything revolutionary. It's just a purse, y'know?