I made a purse.  It didn’t turn out quite like I had hoped.

I bought a pattern, per Lili’s suggestion. I hesitate to link to the one that I bought because I don’t think it’s the pattern’s fault, but I went with the “one for all shoulder bag” from Betsy Ross. (Sorry to not do your pattern justice Betsy Ross – it was my first attempt at making something other than curtains.)

I didn’t want to potentially waste any of my ‘good’ fabric, so I used an old duvet cover from IKEA and a sheet I picked up at the thrift store for $1. The whole project took a few hours, and really wasn’t too hard. The purse is even sort of cute…

The pattern didn’t call for any lining, but it did say that thick fabrics are better. Maybe that’s why my purse is so floppy? I did try to get fancy though with a lining (thinking it would add the requisite thickness) and pockets. The pocket I created specifically for my cell phone, by the way, is too small.

Oh, I also added interfacing to the gusset (the bottom/middle part) of the bag. I thought it would give a little extra support.

It didn’t.

Hello, big floppy mess!

Why does it look like that? What should I have done differently? I was having so much fun making it, but now I don’t think I’ll even use it. It makes me a little sad.

I want to try again, but I’m worried about getting the same results. Any ideas on what I did wrong?