Made a patternless bag - January's C

 

Sat last night in front of the TV, my fingers started itching to tackle the ball of recycled yarn I made the other day.  So I grabbed the ball and a size 10 crochet hook and started messing around with the yarn, and it grew organically into a bag.  Almost by itself - and I do stress the almost.

I will have to have a bit of a think before writing up the pattern and try to remember how it goes but it is based purely on how much yarn you have as the basis of this idea was to use recycled fabric.

Obviously the kittens loved it and as the bag took shape I was constantly fighting them off because they were both treating it as their personal sleeping bags.

With a little help from Ferguson

He obviously felt that I was struggling to get his size right, so got into the bag while I was still finishing it off to make sure it was the correct fit.

He is just too cute for words and definitely my cat, choosing to sit on my lap, purr with me and give my hair a good cleaning whether I think it needs it or not. Not to be recommended mind you, it hurts when he digs his teeth in to pull the knots out and certainly not likely to be issued as a Laboratoire Garnier product as modeled by Eva Longoria any time soon.

Even with his help I did manage to get my bag finished, without having to unpick everything.  I worked from a basic idea having seen this style of recycled/upcycled bag on the internet, but must write it up on a bit of scrap paper and count it out before publishing it here.

So having finished a project on Saturday, Sunday was the day for starting new ones.

I packed the kitchen sampler back into the project box, I just don't fancy it, but rummaged around and found another one, a prettier cat counted cross stitch, in addition I got out some lovely thick oatmeal coloured wool ready to start knitting some more hats.

New bags and embellishments

It has not just been busy here the last couple of days it has been absolutely manic.

I think every one of our neighbours has been round with something that needs fixing, we have some friends over from the UK on holiday too and are trying to spend some time with them, as well as trying to get as much done as we can in the garden and house in between showers.

On the basis that we all have to draw a breath every now and again and take some zen time, I managed to find a couple of hours yesterday in my studio to draw up a new bag design and get the first prototype sewn up.  It took a bit longer than expected because of having to think everything through before committing my scissors to the cloth - what's that old adage, measure twice, cut once.

If I thought yesterday was busy today was relentless.  The current fix-it list for Brendan is: Polo, Clio, John Deere, seized tractor water pump, a dead VW 4x4, leaky tap, a broken rotavator,  and a non-running Renault tractor - this is all because he is off to the UK for a few days himself next week so of course everyone wants things done before he goes!  Oh well, looks like painting the bathroom will be a project for me then.

Earlier, while he sat cruising on the internet for a cheap car stereo for another one of our neighbours I ran away to my studio so I could get the trimmings onto the finished bags, one denim bag done, two cotton bags with embroidery and crochet flowers done, one cotton bag with felt flowers finished, now I just need Thea to model them so I can get them listed on Etsy.

Photos to follow when I can get the computer tower to work - I guess my Dutch is still not up to scratch on Microsoft gobbledegook!

Edited: Wednesday - as you can see I managed to get a couple of photos up.

Monday morning blues

I don't think I am really blue, but tired. 

I had a ridiculously early morning with  my new kitten needing the litter tray and even two cups of coffee are not getting me going today.

Yesterday I got on with more photo processing and got photos onto flickr.com, as well as some of my bags listed on Etsy, before we had to go out for aperos (French drinkies) and to fetch my mother's day pressie - my new kitten.

 With the computer freezing every couple of minutes from the photo overload, and kittens demanding my time, I never managed to finish all my bag listings yesterday so got on with that today, but still have not managed to get everything on Etsy, so looks as though my afternoon will be taken up with that too.

Wednesday morning in my studio for a quickie.....

Before shooting off to work this morning I had a couple of hours to myself so I got out the materials and the patterns for the bags that I want to make in the next couple of days and started to snip away.

 This bag will be made from a pair of old black trousers, a shirt in abstract greys and blacks, and the lining from a skirt.  Here are all the layers when I had finished cutting. 

 While I was in the studio I finished off the top that I made the other day with some little belt loops in cotton ready for the satin ribbon that will tie around the waist to finish it off - watch out for the appearing in my shop in the next couple of days - when I can get my model to stand still for long enough to put it on so I can photograph it.

The first photo you see today is a selection of the treasures in my bargain buy of the car boot at the weekend.  A bag of miscallaneous sewing items for one euro.  In there were some nylon threads, some cottons, some wools, some hook and eyes, some mohair sewing thread, some elastic, some ribbon, some bias trim and of course some buttons.

Not that I am button obsessed you know - after all - doesn't everyone have a kitchen drawer packed to the gills with buttons?

Before and After - quick bag (Friday's project)

Friday I had just enough time to run up this quick bag from the skirt of a wedding suit lost in fashion since the 80s.  Photo shows the finished bag and the left over top still to be used.

I made another freepress template from our almost daily publicity material, unpicked the skirt, and added some recycled white cotton for a lining, then cut through the four layers to create an outer patterned bag and an inner lining.

The bag sews together very easily, right sides to right sides for the bag pieces and straps, then place the lining into the outer bag, right sides to right sides again, and sew together the sides and the openings, leaving the strap ends open.

Pull the bag through, do the same with the strap and then fit the ends of the straps into the open ends on the bag pieces and sew together.

One quick and easy shopper now needing a bit of embellishment before it heads for my etsy shop.

Back in the Studio - recycled material bags - with tutorial

When I went rifling through my lovely box of swapped clothes I found a set of tweed skirts which sparked an idea in my mind, and with studio withdrawl pangs this morning I decided it was definitely time to sit back down at my sewing table and do something to stop my palms from itching.

So I started making my series of tweedy English country garden shopping bags - the first one rolled off the production line today and was made from the lovely brown and beige striped tweed skirt you see in the photo above.  I spend the morning unpicking seams, hems and darts, then a quick iron flat.

My pattern was based roughly on a bag I had last year but with thicker straps intended for popping to the shops rather than slinging over your shoulder with your lippy and a mobile for a night out.

I just cut the rough shape with a fold line for the material out of some of the flimsy publicity material we get through the door, which is almost as light as tracing paper but has the advantage of telling you what is on offer at the supermarket.

Then using the paper template I cut two pattern pieces in the outer tweed material, using the pattern fold, and a further two pieces from the inner skirt lining to serve as the liner for the bag.  

Obviously because I am using odds and ends of material there was not enough lining to cut the bag liner in two simple pieces, I cut one, then  had to make up the second in two pieces and join them together with a seam.  So while I was cutting and sewing extra bits, I cut and sewed up a quick pocket too.  This then got attached to the lining at this early stage.

The bag lining was then pin basted right side to right side, and I sewed around the bag part leaving the opening and the handles to sew together later.

The outer tweed was then pin basted right side to right side and sewn together - as you may be able to see in the earlier photo I left a larger seam allowance for the tweed so that I could overlock it to prevent it from fraying.

With the two sets sewn up, I then put the inner lining into the outer tweed bag, making sure that they were right side to right side again.

I pin basted and sewed around the handles and the opening - remembering to sew these together in pairs, outer tweed to lining, leaving the handles open at the ends.

Then the hard part - pulling the bag inside out or right side out rather, you have to be quite tough to feed the whole bag through the small gap left at the seams of the handles, but with a bit of wiggling and pushing, the bag pops through.

I pressed the seams flat, then fed one handle into the open seam of another, and ran a double line of stitches across to secure them.

And there you have it - first one of my shopping bags completed in a day - which sounds like a long time but I was out at work from 11 to 4, so it was more of a morning fix in the studio and then back home and straight to my sewing machine before dinner.

There are three or four skirts altogther and some Prince of Wales check trousers to sew up so I had better get busy.

So very very very happy to be back in my studio - after a week of solid gardening I have missed it - or maybe my back just really needed a break from the hoe?