August Whiplash Competition - Wardrobe Surgery

This month's Whiplash competition is a challenge to use a piece of clothing to create something new. My project was last minute -but I good a burst of inspiration after looking through some of my fall fashion magazines. I noticed a trend of "Edwardian" influenced pieces with ruffles, metallic embroidered monograms and other ornamentation. I decided to use an old black velvet party dress that was in my fabric stash (thrifted by a friend of mine) to make a fall handbag. The dress had a great chiffon ruffle going down the front so I thought that would be perfect on the bag I was going to make.
I cut the dress so that the ruffles would end up on either side of the bag. I also decided to use the zipper from the back of the dress to go across the top of the bag.
The really exciting detail I made is a patch with my monogram. I cut out a piece of the velvet and drew my monogram free hand with white pen. I added a little crown to make it even fancier. I embroidered over my drawing with gold metallic thread (on the sewing machine). I used some of the leftover ruffle to trim around the "patch" and sewed it to the front of the bag. I fashioned two handles from some of the velvet and sewed them to the bag. I think it will make a great, funky bag for fall.