the coffin-shaped no-sew faux-leather purse

Hello! Lately I've been seeing a lot of the pastel goth fashion around on the internets; gosh, I do love me a good subculture! I was an emo-kid in high school, but probably not a very good one; I liked too many looks to really stick to one subculture! However, I really admire people who *do* have that level of commitment to their style ^___^ Anyway, inspired by the pastel goths, I made this awesome coffin-shaped no-sew faux-leather purse! Whoa, that's a lotta hyphens! ~___^

The main frame of this purse is made from the bottom section of a Living Dead Doll box, but you could make a substitute from cardboard and tape. The good thing about using the packaging is that it is, for cardboard, thick and strong - plus, you get a creepy doll to go with it. Bonus!

I still had a heap of faux leather in my craft room, so I used that to cover the box and also to make the front. I used the box to trace outlines of all the pieces I would need, leaving a bit of seam allowance on the front piece to allow for a bit of overlap. For the front piece of the purse, I cut out the general shape, cut it into two where I wanted the zip to be positioned, and then used hot glue to attach the faux leather to each side of the zip. I cut small notches into the seam allowance so that they would fold around the sides of the box more neatly, and then used hot glue to attach the front leather piece and the box together. 

The side pieces covered up the folded parts of the front piece, which makes it look a lot neater. The handle is just a long piece of chain that I threaded through small holes that I cut through in both the faux leather and the box. I also added thin black ribbon around the edges of the purse, but I shouldn't have used hot glue for this part. The ribbon was thin enough that sometimes hot glue escaped from underneath it, which looks a bit messy. I would instead recommend a super glue that dries clear and that you don't need much of and possibly a thicker ribbon than what I used.

This project is currently made from 100% stash materials, however Spotlight has a great range of studded trims at the moment, so I'm very tempted to go and buy a couple of meters of one of them to cover up the ribbon.

I don't have any photos of this purse in action, as it were, due to the very windy weather we've been having lately (hair blowing all over your face = not a good look). However, that means we can use our imaginations to create an outfit to go with the coffin purse! Hmmm, I am thinking a fluffy black dress with a pastel petticoat, my Doc Marten heels, lacey white stockings, and a couple of my bat bows ^___^ What about you; what do you think would be the perfect outfit to go with it?

- Lisa xx