How to Make a French Silk Purse That You Can Put Potpourri Inside

The embroidery design gives the purse an elegant look.

Eighteenth and 19th century French purses were embroidered bags made of silk. The exterior design of the bags varied, but the primary similarities include use of silk fabric to construct the bag and the use of silk thread to embroider the bag. Placing potpourri in a silk bag or purse would allow the aroma to escape from the bag and add the scent to the environment around the bag. The potpourri-filled bag would make an aromatic and attractive addition to a clothes closet or wardrobe.

Things You'll Need

• Tailor’s chalk
• Tape measure
• Silk fabric
• Scissors
• Serger OR
• Sewing machine
• Pattern transfer
• Iron
• Needle
• Embroidery floss
• Pins
• Twisted cord
• Potpourri

Instructions

1. Use tailor’s chalk and a tape measure to mark a 7-inch by 22-inch rectangle on a piece of silk cloth. Cut out the rectangle. Overlock the edges with a serger or sewing machine to prevent the fabric from fraying during the construction phase.

2. Iron your choice of pattern transfer on the right side of the silk cloth or draw the design with tailor’s chalk or a pencil. Do not include any design in the 6 inches in the center of the fabric length. Cut a piece of embroidery floss and thread it through the eye of a needle. Tie a knot in the end of the floss and insert the needle into the cloth from the underside. Satin stitch the outline, placing the beginning of the next stitch next to the entry point of the previous stitch and exiting the top side of the cloth next to the exit point of the previous stitch. Use other stitches as appropriate to the pattern. Continue this process until your embroidery work is done.

3. Fold the embroidered fabric in half with right sides together. Measure 1 1/2 inches up from the fold and fold the fabric up and over the fabric so you have a small pocket on each side of the bag. This will form the base of your bag after you sew it together. Pin the sides together and sew the sides of the bag together with 1/2-inch seam allowance, stopping 1/2 inch short of the top of the bag on the left side of the bag.

4. Fold the top edge of the bag down 3/8 inch with the wrong sides together. Pin the edge down and sew around the bottom edge of the turned-down fabric. This will leave a small opening on one side of the bag at the seam line for a drawstring.

5. Turn the bag right side out. Cut a 15-inch segment of twisted cord into one side of the opening and thread all the way around and out the opening. Tie the two ends of the cord together. Add your potpourri and close the bag with the drawstring.

References

• Metropolitan Museum of Art: Bag (Reticule)
• Philadelphia Museum of Art: Collection Object: Purse
• Metropolitan Museum of Art: Purse