Hi everyone!
We shall be having a bourse class weekend on May 19-20.
Here’s a list of what you’ll need to make a bourse:
Materials:
- stitched piece: you need a square design to make a bourse, and you’ll (obviously) need to cut the linen into a square, leaving a generous margin around the design. My design was 9.2 cm square (3″ 3/4) and I added a 5-cm (2″) margin, PLUS a seam allowance. For a larger design, you will probably want a larger margin. To determine the width of your margin, just keep this in mind: the stitched piece shall form the bottom of the bourse, and the margins form the sides of the bourse. Do not forget to add seam allowances! (I use 1-cm allowances for small projects)
- fabric square of the same size – I tend to cut mine slightly larger: better be safe than sorry, right? 😉
- ribbon, narrow lace or cording (length will depend on your bourses’s size)
- (optional) four buttons
- sewing thread that matches the linen
Tools:
- ruler or measurer’s tape
- scissors
- (optional) pinking shears
- pins
- seam ripper or small pointed scissors
- chopstick or whatnot to turn your work inside out and make crisp corners
- hand-sewing needle
(only the essentials are featured in the picture)
This is a very easy project, and while a sewing machine will make your work go quicker, you can absolutely do this by hand. Your work will even be more accurate if you sew it by hand – and it won’t take that long, I promise. 🙂
Anyone can do this project – it is ridiculously easy!
Please feel free to ask if you have any question. We all know there is no such thing as a dumb question 😉
Focus on Finishing 
Isabelle, what is a bourse? I’m laughing at myself because I thought it was such a dumb question and then I read your comment about there is no such time as a dumb question! You read my mind!
Have a great weekend!
Isabelle:
Hi Alberta! Bourse is the French for pouch or purse. We like to call them “bourses” because they became popular when a French Au Fil des Rêves design called Bourse maison de brodeuse was published.
You can see a bourse I made for KarenV here.
You’ll see what it looks like, both opened and closed 🙂
Hope this helps, if not feel free to ask again 😀
Thanks for a very clear description of what we’ll need, Isabelle. I’ve been dying to try this and I’m really looking forward to the tutorial. 😀
Thank you for offering to have this tutorial Isabelle. I really appreciate your clear instructions for tools and materials needed to complete this project. I am looking forward to trying this very much. 😀
I am so excited that you are offering this class! Just like Barbara, I have been dying to try a bourse finish for myself. Now I just need to either find something in my finishing pile that I can use or stitching something up quickly. Aw shucks. 😉
Thanks everyone 🙂 Jenna, you can totally use a small design, as long as it’s square. A biscornu design from Periphaeria would be perfect, for instance. 😉
Oh excellent! 🙂 I too need to stitch something up for this, I don’t think I have a thing in my finishing pile I can use. The only thing that comes to mind is one of the Quaker squares from Workbasket but I’ll have to check the stash 😉
This is gorgeous. Thanks for the instructions. I have yet to make one, but I very much want to do so!
Wonderful! I think I might just have to join you for this wonderful project! Now to find a design that I can stitch quickly and buy some fabric. I think I have the rest of the supplies that are needed!
Oh, I’d love to make a bourse! I won’t have any of my fabric though (still crossing the seas), so I’ll have to follow the instructions and make one another time 🙂
Aw, Nicki, you should have told me. I would have been happy to send you some. Feel free to email me if you want some 🙂
Excellent tutorial Isabelle! I enjoyed reading it so much, thank you!!
Here’s my dumb question, Isabelle. What’s the difference between pressing and ironing? LOL – guess who hardly touches her iron???
Sure, Barbara. It’s all there. 🙂