A well-dressed doll needs accessories, but those little finishing details add up. I’ve yet to figure out what to do about shoes for my dolls – other than buying them for $$$ – but something fun happened recently with purses.

I bought a digital edition of this sewing pattern for Tyler Wentworth dolls, McCalls 3845. It’s out of print – I think it’s about 20 years old – so you can hunt down an old print copy or buy a digital download on Etsy which is (alas) unlikely to be a licensed and legal copy. I wish rights holders would make this older content available again but that seems unlikely to happen soon.

You can see that both dolls are carrying purses. You can’t really see the purse carried by the doll on the left in the dinner suit, beyond it being more square than the drawstring one.

Well, lo and behold, it’s kind of a Birkin bag.

Here’s the line drawing from the pattern instructions:

Hmm. You cut the bag from faux leather and add a buckle to the strap across the front that holds the flap closed.

I cut one from a square of fake leather. These came in a package at the dollar store – there are two each of five colours (black, brown, navy, caramel and red) for a couple of dollars. The squares are about 7.5″ x 7.5″. (20cm by 20cm) It took less than half of one to cut out a purse – you can see that I could cut at least one more from the same square. I used a rotary cutter and ruler, btw, to get the straps perfectly straight.

And here’s my first purse:

I think it’s adorable!

It was careful sewing – I slowed down the machine speed – but not that difficult. The toughest part was the corner of each side at the bottom front. I backtacked each stitching line, but I think next time, I’ll pull the theads to the inside of the bag and knot them.

The buckle is one I bought online from China so it’s probably the most expensive element. I ordered 40 more in mixed colours on Etsy for about $16 CA including shipping ($11CA plus $5 for shipping), since I’m using a lot of them. That makes them about 40 cents each. Individually, they’re more like 70 cents each plus shipping. It’s a necessary touch, though.

I’m thinking also that I could use a Sharpie to color the white edges that peek out, or even do one with a contrasting color. Hmm. I put a rolled Kleenex tissue in the bottom to support the shape. Overall, I’m pretty pleased by it.

I’ll be making some more purses from the squares with this pattern since those buckles have arrived. The girls need brown and caramel purses and I’ll try the navy with contrast cream stitching, too.

Next week, I’ll show you the little dinner suit finished. 🙂