DIY coin purse with a "kiss clasp"

Here is a personalized, inexpensive project. I made five of these coin purses for my five nieces. Here's how to do it yourself, and what I would do differently next time.

These are two tutorials which were quite helpful. They don't agree on how to set the fabric into the frame.

Molly's sketchbook: a cute Japanese coinepurse

Purse frames de-mystified (aka Laundry Day clutch purse) - tutorial: they say "have you ever wondered how to make those lovely purses with clasp frames; dented, scratched, and ruined a metal frame/frames with those darn pliers; taken apart lots of purses to try to figure how in the heck they put them together...well step this way because we can help."

I ordered my purse frames from Ah Kwok Buckles in Hong Kong. They sell a lot of really cool stuff.
The price was reasonable, even with shipping. They came in quantities of five. I got five square ones and five curved ones.

Since then I've heard about this place: American Purse Supplies. Haven't tried them. (Haven't used up all my frames from last time.)


So, first draw yourself a pattern, as roomy or long as you like, as long as the top edge conforms to the pattern given by the manufacturer. If you use square frames, the very top is flat, but you can angle the sides out as much as you want.

The pictures in the links I gave above are wonderful. Go have a look.

I made the template the size of the finished purse and did not include seam allowance - I added the seam allowance later.

Once you've drawn your purse, tape the drawing onto a piece of cardboard for a template (I always use cereal boxes).


Trace your template onto lightweight fusible interfacing, four times for each coin purse you are making - then iron the interfacing pieces onto the fabric and use them as a guide for cutting out the fabric pieces. Since I was making five change purses, I cut out twenty identical pieces of interfacing. I ironed ten of them onto my lining fabric and cut around them, this time adding a seam allowance.

Then I ironed five more pieces of interfacing to the five different "outside' fabrics I was using. The last five pieces of interfacing will eventually be ironed onto your "outside' fabric, but not yet.

Now trace your pattern (leaving room for the two seam allowances) onto the front fabric. I used very narrow grosgrain ribbon for the letters and stitched it onto the fabric by hand with tiny stitches. Some other system might be better.

After I embroidered the fabric, the backs were a bit messy, but I ironed the interfacing over them and that secured the messy threads.

Now sew the fabric pieces together, lining to lining, outsides to outsides, right sides in. If you "chain" them through your sewing machine (that is, don't cut each one off, just move on to the next one) it goes much faster. Only sew up to where the top goes into the frame. Leave the top unsewn! Now I had five lining bags and five outside-fabric bags

Sew across each corner of each little bag, at the bottom - this little triangle adds volume inside the purse. (You can chain them through your sewing machine.) The larger the corner you sew across, the boxier the finished purses will be.

Stuff a lining bag inside each "outside fabric" bag such that the seams show on the outside and the seams show on the inside.

Think of the unsewed perimeter as a mouth - start sewing at the front teeth and sew right around the side to the bottom teeth and keep going around ALMOST back to where you came from, but leave a gap to pull the purse through. And then pull the fabric through. There should be no raw edges showing anywhere, and there's a little unsewed bit at the top of one of the sides, but since you're about to glue it into the frame it will never show.

Elmer's Ultimate Glue with Precision Tip was what was recommended to me. I love this glue. It expands, like gorilla glue, only it's more manageable. Expanding is good in this case because the fabric is thin and the channel is thick.

One method of making purses suggests stuffing a string up inside the frame. Good luck with that. I carefully prodded the fabric up into the channel hard against the glue and it worked ok - but if I do this again, I'll try cutting a piece of cardboard the shape of the channel and shoving that up in there with the fabric, or maybe I'll baste a piece of yarn to the mouth of the purse before I turn it right-side out.

Let the glue dry before you close the purses. Here are three of the five purses I made, as they sit with the glue drying.

One tutorial said to use pliers and gently crimp the purse frame closed. I complied, because it bothered me that the fabric was thin and the metal channel was wide, but it kind of wrecked the purses. Next time, instead of crimping, I will add cardboard inside the frame. Otherwise, I'm very pleased with how the purses came out.

My favorite t-shirts

How to make a half-size cheesecake

A whole big heavy full-sized cheesecake has so many calories. And face it, if there's half a cheesecake left over and you stick it in the refrigerator, it's going to get eaten.

I didn't find a recipe online for what I wanted - a half-sized cheesecake - so I figured it out for myself and it was perfect.
And very easy.



After I made two half-size cheesecakes in a 1-quart baking dish, I splurged and bought a 7" springform pan. A 6" pan would also work, you would have to cook it a little longer at a little lower heat.

Half-sized cheesecake recipe: the graham-cracker crust

1-1/4 cup of crushed graham crackers (this USED to be one of the three wrapped portions inside a graham-cracker box but now a box of graham crackers weighs only 14.4 oz so you'll have to break into the next portion)
1/4 cup sugar
a dash of salt
6 TB of butter

You don't really need this much crust but in my family people like a lot.

I crush the cookies in my food processor but you can pound them flat inside a gallon-sized ziplock bag too. Don't use low-fat graham crackers, they won't hold together well. Some people add cinnamon but I don't like it in this recipe.

I melted the butter and added the rest of the ingredients and pressed them carefully against the aluminum foil lining of my casserole (and then against the edges of my springform baking tin when I got it yesterday), and pushed them up the sides as far as they would go. It's recommended to chill the crust for half an hour but I didn't bother and it turned out fine.

Small sized cheesecake: the filling
12 ounces of cream cheese (that's one and a half of the big size or three of the small size) you can use non-fat creamcheese and it will turn out fine!
1/2 cup of sugar plus 1 tablespoon which is added to the sourcream topping
2 teaspoons of vanilla
dash of salt
2 eggs
8 ounces of sour cream

They say cheesecakes turn out better if you don't mix them too vigorously - I had all the ingredients at room temperature and first beat the sugar into the cream cheese (with the dash of salt).

Then I mixed in the two eggs and one teaspoon of vanilla by hand and poured it into the casserole.

Shake your cheesecake gently to settle it and then bake it at 330 degrees for about 35 minutes. You want it not all the way cooked - you want it jiggly for about three inches in the center.

Pull the cheesecake out of the oven and let it cool for five minutes. Meanwhile, stir the other teaspoon of vanilla and the one tablespoon of sugar into the sour cream.

Mix the sourcream, vanilla, and sugar and drop by dollops onto the hot cheesecake. spread them into a thin, even layer.



Put it back in the oven for another ten minutes. Then turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in there for an hour or three before putting it in the refrigerator. These small cheesecakes never crack.

I visited Elizabeth City, NC for their "Splash Week" Artists weekend.

In May I got an email from Jane Filer, a wonderful local artist who I took a studio class from long ago, inviting me to an unusual event:

SPLASH WEEK! a gathering of artists and all creative folks

Pack up the tools of your creativity and head to Elizabeth City for the sixth annual SPLASH! -- a time especially for you to dive into your talented spirit in the creative world of Elizabeth City, NC.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014
through Sunday, June 8, 2014
Come when you can and stay as long as you can.

You’ll spend your days immersed in your own creative endeavor at your own special spot...
the banks of the Pasquotank, the bow of a boat, the meadow of a farmer’s field, a private garden, an old shipyard, a swamp filled with Cypress trees, a studio in a historic downtown building, or in our fabulous Arts of the Albemarle.

I'm ordinarily too shy to do something like this, but I've been feeling a little lonely lately, so why not? I packed up some painting supplies and also a portable keyboard and I headed over to Elizabeth City, a place I'd never seen before.

When I arrived, they helped me move my gear into a giant vacant building next to the Arts Council. There were already lots of people with their easels set up, painting or schmoozing. I had decided to use this time as a retreat to practice the piano so I set up way, way back in the back of the building where there was an electric outlet.

This is the block of historic downtown Elizabeth City that was our headquarters, with the art council and the studio next door. I put on my headphones and practiced silently most of the time, but it was great to be around other happy people doing what made their hearts sing. I would say "artists" here was a self-diagnosed condition - there were paintings and creations from the sublime to the ridiculous - which actually added to the easy-going atmosphere.

Wednesday night there was a wonderful "Low Country Boil" - some caterers in a truck threw vats of spicy shrimp, potatoes, and corn onto tables covered with newspaper and people just picked up the treats with their fingers and put them in bowls and ate massive amounts - beer was also not lacking. Tout le monde turned out for great food...

... and to bid on painted chairs, proceeds to the local arts. Here you see them loaded up on the way to the Peels' house: the shrimp boil was held at the home of the mayor and his wife, Joe and Carolyn Peel. They also amazingly let me stay at their wonderful house which is full of folk art and right across the street from the huge, beautiful river. Look:

Like most small North Carolina towns, Elizabeth City is trying to figure out how to thrive in the 21st century. Its primary advantage, and it's a huge one, is the beautiful confluence of rivers. The coastline where all these rivers come together is almost a fractal, and it seems like everybody who has a home along the river has a pier and a lovely view. But the rest of the county is really suffering. I hope the current efforts to find economic possibilities for the area are successful. And I look forward to going back to Elizabeth City for the next artists retreat.