From vest to cute News Years purse!

Hello! So today I was going through my closet finding things I wanted to update or send to goodwill for the holiday charities. As we are all aware New Years is coming up and millions will be celebrate the new coming year with family and friends. I wanted to make something cute and creative for the celebrations. I came across an old vest I bought at a garage sale this past summer. While cute and sparkly I didn't realize my shoulders were too broad for it to fit me properly. But never fear! I will turn this cute thrifty find into a chic purse.

Keep in mind you can probably find a vest or even a sequin shirt at your local goodwill, salvation army, or even local garage sales. Save yourself the money and pass on buying expensive purses and shirts at chain stores. It is fun to discover an awesome find at a thrift store. I only a paid a dollar for this vest at a garage sale.

The first step I took was to put the vest face down and while I tried to remove the original stitching with a seam ripper it didn't work out so I simply used scissors. I just cut along the line of stitching to remove the shoulder fabric. Repeat for the other side. :D

Carefully remove the tag with a seam ripper, but just use it on the thread. Don't poke holes into the fabric.

I chose to cut my fabric into a rectangular shape, but you can choose to make whatever shape you want the base of your bag to have. Next I put my nice sides together and pinned around leaving an opening for the top of the purse.

Sew around at 5/8 it is marked on the sewing machine for those not super familiar with sewing machines.

Now to ensure the corners of the bag come out properly I chose to pink the edges. Careful not to cut where you have stitched. Next fold about 1/2 in to 1 in of fabric to make the outside of the purse have pretty lines instead of a raw edge at the top. Pin it all around in place to prepare for sewing. Sew around the top edge and remove pins as you go. Once completed right side out to view your work! Now I decided to use some left over Mardi Gras beads as my handle, but you can use old or broken necklaces, belt, etc I chose the silver Mardi Gras beads because it was what I had laying around and was equally shiny. I hand sewed the beads into place and to give the bag some stability I did a diagonal stitch to give the bag some stability along where the beads were placed. I also hand sewed a snap on the inside of the bag to make it close, but of course you could do a zipper or whatever you'd like.

Also you are perfectly welcome to add something to stiffen the bag up and then add a lining, but because i have a thick wallet I chose not to, because it was unnecessary. HA! I always carry this monstrous wallet. There you have it though a cute chic purse to bring in the New Year!