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.

Feeling sooooooo satisfied

It is a wonderful feeling to finish a crafty project in a couple of hours.

Today I crocheted a rug from the recycled t-shirt strips I cut a while or so ago, and used my handmade wooden crochet hook to make it with.

And now it adornes the floor in the bathroom.

This was so easy to make, but I really fell in love with using recycled cotton t-shirts and my huge hook because it is just so so so so fast!

Start with a chain of 25, on the basis that my strips of fabric were a couple of centimetres wide on average and my hook is about 22 mm size, this gives a width of approx 60 cm.

The body is then crocheted in half double crochet, a new stitch for me but really easy, it gives a denser, knobblier finish to the rug.

I have no idea how many rows I crocheted because I just kept going until I had used up all my cotton strips.

At the end of each row, chain 2 to create the first stitch, turn the work, then hdc in each stitch to the end.

How to : HDC = half double crochet

yarn over the hook as you would for a double crochet

push the hook through the top two yarns of the hole

hook the yarn and pull through all three loops on the crochet hook - don't yarn over again

so, yarn over the hook, push through the top two yarns of the hole, don't yarn over again, pull through all three loops on your hook to create one half double crochet stitch

When it was time to join the strips, I just knotted them together and wove the tails back through the stitches.

May have to reward myself with a glass of wine and slice of cake now.

Alterations - How to spend a couple of hours on a hot Sunday morning

Following yesterday's denim cut off start, I am continuing the theme of alterations.

My lovely generous mummy sent me some charity shop bargains again, and for a change they actually fit, in fact they fit so well that I have one cropped pair of trousers that don't need anything doing to them!

But there are some minor alterations to be made to the two shirts she sent, one simply because the buttons gape a bit and it just needs a stitch to hold everything in and decent, and the other shirt has a small hole and way too much tight elastic around the arms so I am going to remove the elastic and get rid of the puff sleeves.

In the meantime Thea is sorting out her wardrobe and has a pile of requests of her own, one dress to be altered to a t-shirt, another pair of trousers to make into shorts, this time with turn ups rather than a frayed edge.

So coffee and a biscuit then off to the studio.


Edited:-

OK it is now Sunday night, and the alterations plan went well as long as it lasted, then things took an embellishment twist.

I started off by cutting and hemming a pair of jogging bottoms for me to wear for work, then moved on to the stitch for my gaping buttons, but by the time I had shortened Thea's dress to a t-shirt I was bored.

Which meant that by the time I got to the brown shirt that just needed a small hole fixing and some elastic removing I couldn't just stop there, out came the ribbon and lace basket and I found this bit of pom-pom trim, which was just long enough to attach to the sleeves, then I added a couple of wooden beads to the neckline ties.  Another original for the summer.


This morning we started the day with a quick visit to a local small car boot; there was not much there to be honest but at least we left the house and had a change of scenery for a couple of hours.  Whilst there about the only bargain that I found was this piece of vintage 70s floral fabric, only a small remnant but enough there to make up another bag.  And while the weather was way too hot for gardening (36°C in the shade today) I stayed in my studio and got another bag sewn up.

My plan for this week while Thea has a free day is to get another little photoshoot sorted for the collection of bags I now have ready for listing on Etsy.

Productive Day in the studio - new bag design on vintage fabrics.

The lovely weather is continuing - not - lovely for ducks perhaps. With the grey skies looming overhead with the threat of yet more heavy rain I decided to shut myself away with my stereo and my sewing machine in my studio.

I designed another easy bag on my very useful plastic coated publicity material, lit the fire and started cutting away.

I finished sewing up the bag I started the other day, finished it with some wooden beads,

 then used the same vintage 70s cotton to make up another bag in my new design with some hand crocheted flowers to add a bit of detailing, then had a go at another nautical themed bag in the same design.

 Very pleased with the way these have turned out, and also how my new design works, only two pieces, a round bottom, then a single cut of material to form the tube body of the bag, then this pattern piece is folded in half and creates the template for the handle.

Very productive day.

For sale in my shop today......

I finished this cute little cushion this morning too, ready for sale in my etsy shop here.

This was made by cutting two circles of material, one from a vintage tablecloth and one from an old skirt, then I measured the diameter of the circles and cut a band of 10 centimetres width to create a band between the two circles to give the cushion more depth.

The band was then pinned to the two circles, right sides together for the top and bottom, then I machine stitched the top circle and then the bottom circle, leaving a gap in the band where it overlaps to create a small 'hole'to allow me to add the stuffing.


Firstly the cushion itself had to be turned the right way out, by being pulled through the small gap in the banding.

The stuffing was some polyester kapock, and the cushion was then finished with a handful of vintage buttons from my button drawer in some matching blue and green tones.

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.

Reluctant model

With the rain finally easing off, and after a manic hour of weeding in the garden as well as getting my beetroot seedlings planted out, I finally got my reluctant model to don her coat and head outside for a few photos.

I finished this lastest round of hats the other week, but had not managed to get them listed yet as both the weather and my model were conspiring against me.

With this dry spell possibly continuing into tomorrow I may be able to get the rest of my items photographed and listed. This afternoon I am making a start with these.

Late Spring may seem to be the wrong time to list wooly hats, but as the inclement May has shown us, it is not summer yet.

Foraging bags

What do you get when you cross a conference attendee's gift bag with an old tweed skirt - well a foraging bag of course.

A lifetime ago I used to attend conferences for work and these bags were being given out as you signed in full of bits of promotional blurb and pens. At the end of the conference I managed to scrounge enough bags to outfit my daughter's Brownie pack as well as her gym club, not to mention the hundreds of pencils the conference hosts donated to her school too.

Full of sewing enthusiasm after the other day's successful bag efforts, I set up my studio this morning, and got this tweed skirt unpicked and ironed flat ready to be sewn up into something new and exciting. As it was unlined and I did not have anything suitable to put with it, I took these cotton conference bags out of storage and thought I would jazz them up and turn them into foraging bags inspired by my friend's foraging basket search at the flea market last weekend.

The tweed was simply cut into panels as allowed for by the skirt pattern they came from, then sewn to the cotton bags, creating folds and tucks for useful pockets - notebooks and pens, maps, books, paints and brushes, gloves or a water bottle and some cake. I used long strips of tweed on the handles finished with a bow, some vintage buttons at the base of the straps then added some vintage lace motifs.

These will be photographed in full for listing on Etsy shortly.

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?