The purse curse strikes again

I'm beginning to feel like the Lady of Shalott.  The Curse Has Come Upon Me!  everything I start turns into a purse with a friend's name on it...here's what may or may not be the final purse for the time being until my fingers recover, hand sewing on denim being heavy lifting.

The handle is a repurposed, but brand new, curtain tieback, courtesy of Judy's care package, the purse is of course three denim pockets, sourced from Freecycle, the blue wooden beads are from Judy, the back shows a lovely gold stretch cord from a long ago box of candy, which has been waiting patiently for a home for the longest time. 

I got that last idea from Erica Wilson, in a youtube video, where she was demonstrating goldwork and needed something big enough to see on camera.  And the blue overstitching which is subtle in real life and practically invisible on camera, is from a trove of embroidery flosses donated via the local library, knowing I'd use them.  I did buy my own needles.

So here's today's output, before I get on with all the other ideas I'm trying to get to.  One of them being a wool dress I'm in the middle of altering to make a duster coat, halfway there.  Except I just noticed I'd already cut out a couple of sets of pockets ready to make up into, oh no, purses.  Oh.  I do like the designing and beading and doing very incongruous stuff with denim.

I remember in one of Peg Bracken's great cookbooks, she talks disparagingly about some ingredient or other, saying it's too high flown, "like sewing diamond buttons on denim pants."  I remember also thinking, well, she might be a very good comic writer, and a good cook, too, but she doesn't know anything at all about design and cutting edge.

The friend this is destined for knows all about irony and I think she'll get it.  And enjoy it.