Purse Mark II

• July 24th, 2008 • 0 Comments • sewing •

Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” My father has often applied this as “your  possessions will multiply and accumulate so as to fill  space available for its storage.”

…so I made myself a new purse!

It’s just a simple flap close, no zipper; this is my first attempt at making a reverse appliqué! Of course the design is a weenie dog, they’ll always be in style for me.

My First Bag

• March 14th, 2008 • 3 Comments • experiments, screen printing, sewing •

In November a friend of mine visited Japan and of course I asked her to pick up some cute webbing and ribbon I saw online at a shop she would be near. She came back with some really cute orange webbing with tulips on it and I immediately knew I wanted to do something special with it. But what? There it sat, waiting for a purpose.

A few weeks ago was our second anniversary. Michael thought I would like the traditional gifts better than the modern ones: last year I got a stack of awesome paper and this year I got a bunch of fabric. (Second year is cotton.) What to with my traditional pile of brown duck cloth? Why, attempt to make an awesome bag of course. A trip to IKEA for a cool-looking liner fabric and a few dozen more trips to the craft store for buckles, thread, zippers and rings: I got all my supplies! It took a couple of on-and-off weeks of work to puzzle out how to make my ideal bag. I loosely followed this handy guide I found on CRAFTzine (In addition to another helpful one on how to sew a two-sided strap.).

So here you have it, my first bag.

Overall it turned out pretty good, I’d say! I orignally intended to use it to replace my purse entirely, but it’s just too big for that. So, I made an accessory purse for day-to-day use when I don’t want to haul all my supplies around in a big bag. (Or when stores make me leave a big bag up front while shopping.) I re-used an old stencil for the front since I like it so much, the big weenie dog. The entire bag is padded with an old U-haul moving pad left-over from a move. I also put a piece of masonite in the bottom of the bag to add some stability after I finished sewing. The strap is double-sided with a pad (also made from U-haul padding) for added comfort.