Natural linen x black handbag with corsage

This is my latest sewing project : a natural linen and solid black cotton handbag.  When I made this bag, I had my girlfriend in my mind, who often dresses in black or white tops with denim jeans.   I thought that a simple linen x black handbag will suit her image.

She is a dear friend of mine, and ever since she gave us very generous and beautiful holiday gifts for myself and our girls for last Christmas, I've been wanting to make a special handmade gift to her... And after more than four months later (sorry for the delay, friend!) I thought it would be a good timing  to whip up a handbag for her for the spring season, since April is her birthday month.

On the face of the bag,  I sewed a black/white ribbon on to the part where the linen fabric and  black cotton are pieced together.

This is the ribbon I used.

Close up view

Just like the flower print bag that I sewed earlier for myself, this bag is also reversible, and the reversible side looks like this.  Black and white dot stripes with wavy curves.  I think this fabric is from our local Joann store.   

Side veiw

And here is another side view.  It may be a bit hard to see from the picture below, but

 I attached a tab with a D ring on this side of the bag to hang keys.

This is how this linen x black bag looks like without the flower corsage... Doesn't it look a little too boring without the corsage, maybe?

Speaking of flower corsage, I had a hard time making this linen flower corsage...

I normally crochet the flower corsage with yarns and crochet hook, but this time, it was my first attempt to make one with several layers of linen fabric.  The toughest part of making this was when I sewed the layers of fabric petals, laces, and leather  strings together, and it was so hard to pull the needle and thread through the layers,  that  I pricked my finger with a needle pretty badly... Ouch!  I had to cease everything what I was doing until my bleeding stopped...(to prevent the corsage from turning bloody... how horrifying!)

I'm a pretty clumsy and careless person, but I guess I shall be more careful when using needles, especially when I'm handstitching :(