Very practical little errand bag I whipped up last night. Perfect for small runs to the drugstore or the grocery store. It has a drawstring enclosure, a mini hanging pocket, and a leather shoulder pad. All found, recycled, or scrap materials.
Bag body is an upholstery fabric sample. Drawstrings are shoelaces. Pocket and shoulder pad are remnants from my materials stash.
I have been playing with all of the stitches available to me on my new sewing machine – fun!
This week’s library books include a children’s book on making stuff with felt and an adult book on sewing your own travel bags. This travel board game prototype merges the two concepts. The game board itself is made of woven felted sweater strips, and it is complemented by a dry erase score sheet from a shiny upholstery fabric sample. Works, too! The letters are courtesy of a vintage children’s Scrabble set found at the Catlin Gabel annual rummage sale a couple of weeks ago. With hook and loop backs, the letter stick easily to the board. The pouch is made from screen door netting scraps, and zips in to form the base of the pouch. The two sides zip to close, and a drawstring closes the bag. I am excited about the concept, and want to get make more. There are never enough hours in the day!
Cute little vinyl zipper pouch I whipped up today using random remnants from my scrap baskets. It features a pirate skull with rhinestone eyes. Nothing too fancy, but a fun opportunity to practice using the freehand embroidery function on my new sewing machine. The machine got grouchy about working with vinyl without feed dogs, but the pouch turned out just fine.
I love these! Sometimes it is hard to give things up because I really wouldn’t mind keeping them. These fingerless gloves are on that list.
About six months ago I inherited a crazy stash of sweaters and sweater parts. Another artist in town uses them, I think to make jackets, and she had given them to my friend Heidi to use for gloves and wristlets. When Heidi and Nicole opened Union Rose, she had no time to work with them, and no space to store them, so the stash went to me.
Last weekend went through the whole stash with a fine toothed comb and put everything into categories: Already Felted, Feltable, Pillage for Parts, Knitted Fabric, or viable sweaters that I will never use. The last category is being donated to a thrift shop because its getting cold outside and it would be better for someone to have a sweater to wear than for them to languish in my studio gathering dust.
These gloves were made from sweater parts that I have been looking at for a couple of weeks, but wasn’t quite sure what to do with just yet. I am very pleased with the end result, and my new serger made putting them together a breeze. These gloves are for sale at Union Rose.
Good news! I have been accepted as a vendor for this year’s SCRAP holiday bazaar and bakesale. I’ve heard that it was somewhat competitive this year, so I am very honored to be chosen as a participant. I was a vendor in 2005 and loved it, so I am looking f0rward to being part of it this year as well.
Last month, my workhorse of a sewing machine finally bit the dust, so I took the opportunity to purchase a new sewing machine as well as a serger. Wow! After fighting with my old machine for years, the new machine is like a dream come true. All I have to do is design now. It even attaches buttons! The serger is a great deal of fun as well. I am still working through an inventory of retired sweaters, and the serger makes working with those a breeze.
I’ve picked up a few new collections of vintage notions, and have spent several nights organizing my inventory. The buttons are even divided by color now, and I’ve acquired some fun zipper pulls that I can’t wait to use.
When I’m not sewing, I am splitting my time between two knitting projects. The first is a shrug from yarn Cat brought me from her trip to Italy in September. The second is a pair of fingerless gloves since I’ve always liked them but never had a pair. Easy to tell a gal who was weaned on Madonna and Cindy Lauper.
