Revamping Regifting (Mini Pink Purse)

At the beginning of this semester, my classmate and friend Sarah brought me back three gorgeous pink ceramic bracelets from India. The only problem is that the bracelets were too small for my wrist. They've been sitting in my car on the shift knob, and their clinking always reminds me of her kindness.

I wanted them to live a better life than one of collecting dust and decorating my car, so I started thinking of ways to make them into something new. Two of the bracelets were a similar thickness and roughly similar patterning. I had just finished making my RAINN-y Day Purse when I got the idea of making a miniature purse. It wasn't until today that I actually got around to doing it.

I headed to my yarn stash to find the perfect fiber, and I found it in Sirdar's Salsa DK in a tweedy pink. The pink almost perfectly matched the bracelets, and the black strands within gave it some depth. I played around with hook sizes and stitches, and settled on a size 7 Brittany hook and plain ol' single crochet.

The purse itself was whipped up during my sewing class, to the admiration of my classmates. They were awed by the fact I wasn't counting nor using a pattern. At the end of the class, I had crappy rolled hems and a perfect little fat-bottomed purse.

I decided to keep this purse unlined, mainly because it seemed wrong to use new materials on a totally upcycled/destashed item. Besides, I wanted to line it with gold lame, and I'm 1) broke and 2) don't have any suitable substitutes for gold lame. The purse itself received its first test when I threw my Motorola SLVR, keys, lip balm, and powder compact into it so I wouldn't have to shove all those things into my pockets (things in pockets when you're 8 months pregnant is a bad idea). Everything fit great. I haven't done a formal measurement of the purse, but if I had to guess, it's probably around 3.5x5.5".

I really can't say I have any *real* new lessons learned, but here are the few observations I made.
1) The more I do this, the less I need patterns
2) Sirdar makes a phenomenal DK wool fiber
3) Small is usually better

As always, look for the mini purse to be added to my Etsy store in the near future.