Daphne Purse

Daphne purse
Daphne purse

This purse is based off of the Daphne Purse pattern by Louisa Harding, using Knit Picks Palette yarn and quilting cotton for the interior pockets. I used fingering weight yarn held double to achieve the same effect as worsted weight yarn. The Palette yarn came in a great gold color, and the wool will be nice & durable with good stitch definition.

I chose a variety of types of ribbon to embroider with, so doing the lazy daisy stitch didn’t work very well with my chosen ribbons. Instead, I just freehanded flowers in different colors in patterns that I liked, and added a few beads for embellishment.

My finished piece came out a bit smaller than I wanted, so I blocked it heavily to stretch it out enough to fit unfolded papers in it (8 1/2” tall below the handle by 11” wide after seaming). I used some very heavy duty double sided fusible interfacing between layers to help it keep its shape even when carrying a lot of weight.

Interior view
Interior view

I added pockets to the lining before sewing it in, and finished the edges with bias tape. I also finished the handle edges with bias tape, hand sewing it in so that it was invisible from the outside.

Even after all of my care to make sure it came out big enough, papers extend a little bit too high in the finished purse. I am thinking about adding a detachable longer handle for when I want to carry papers or magazines inside.