Sunday, March 14, 2010

Slouchy Shoulder Bags

It's been a while since my last post and I thought I'd show you the few items I had made.

First I want to show the changes in the space I work in. I've been inspired by Dee and her blog where she dee-clutters her life. I "met" Dee thru' my blog where she would leave little notes for me to read. I never realised she had a blog until one day she SUMMONED me to go read her stuff and I sure did. Anyhoo, I looked at my own home and it is one big clutter. I live with 3 other hoarders with my husband being the biggest hoarder of all. I'm No. 2 with my fabric and sewing stuff. So I decided to start to de-clutter starting with myself. The first thing I did was rid this cork board of all the junk. I discovered newspaper cutting from years ago and expired warranty cards. In its place I have put 2 drawings by my girl. This space is now reserved for to-do lists. Let's see how it goes.

Below this cork board is a little table which used to house an antique Dell computer. I gave it to recycling because it finally died. Now I use this table to do my cutting and template making. I wish I have a longer table to do my cutting but there isn't any space in my home for a long table.
This is my sewing machine where I do all my magic. I cleaned up the mess before I took the photo. This machine sits on an Ikea table which is a heavy table. I like it that it's heavy because the table won't rattle when I use the machine. Most Ikea products we bought are quite flimsy but this table is real solid.

Another de-cluttering "project" I have on-going is to have as little leftover fabric as possible. My next leftover fabric project is going to be a placemat or another coaster or a pin cushion. I don't know yet. But the idea is not to have so much scraps lying around.

One other thing I used to do but discontinued but picked up again is to do a complete mop down of my sewing area after I complete a project. This is to get rid of the lint and prevent a pile-up of fabric.

Here are the items I made this week.
This cork board is a good place to hang my bags.
These 2 batik bags are similar but different in some small details. The one above is curvier and longer. But you probably can't tell.
Here they are side by side.

This one's similar in design. The outer fabric is a Kate Greenaway print by Lecien. I really like how the striped lining goes with the outer fabric! All 3 bags have fat bottoms.  The Kate Greenaway print bag is now available at Etsy, Artfire and Zibbet!


Lastly a canvas sling bag.
Check out the bottom. I use a formula to calculate my bag bottoms. If anyone's interested let me know and I'll post it next time. You know, I've grown in my bag-making. I think. In the past I would try my best to get the bottoms to match the base of the bags perfectly. But now I find the crinkles rather attractive and I use running stitches to create pleats before I sew the bottom on.

I am in a friendly smock-off with Dee. No, no, it's not star trek related. I'm making a smocked bag while she's making a smocked poncho. Hehe. I'm kidding. I have no idea what she's making. But she's way ahead of me. She uses a smocking machine and she has a smocking teacher. You can go to Make Mine Silk to check on her progress. As for me, I'm still ploughing thru' this Smocking Book. It's really advanced so I have not even started. Time out, Dee!

I said I would make 15 items. I have 4 out of 15. 11 more to go.

12 comments:

YUN ZHEN! said...

Hello!

I like your Kate Greenway bag! Unfortunately, I can't find a reason to buy it other than it being nice! (I'm a Sec 3 student living on pocket money.) But I would just like to tell you that it's nice! And if it could put books or something along those lines! I would convince my other right away to give me money to buy it! But it's usability for me as a student is quite low unfortunately! But regardless, I would like to tell you it's a very very pretty bag! I love it! I love the fabric! It's a very very pretty bag!

jane p said...

Thank you Yun Zhen. It's way too small for school books.

Dee said...

aw shucks Jane, i am glad to have encouraged you in the never-endinig de-cluttering adventure. i LOVE your pinboard and the pictures that your daughter drew; what a great spot to show off your creations. you are making great progress on your 15 bags in a month.
that smocking book looks quite challenging. my humble smocking is a coat-hanger cover. I have been going to a community group on a tuesday morning and there is a lady who is teaching myself and a group of ladies to smock. she ran the fabric strip through her gathering machine to stitch the gathering threads. If you can do this instead of having to transfer dots onto the fabric to run gathering stitches, it will save you hour of preparation and allow you to get on with the smocking. may recommend an Australian book called "A to Z of smocking stitches" for an excellent introduction.
All the best with getting started.

Micki said...

It was nice seeing your work area...lovely bags!
Micki

Mette said...

I'd love to hear about the formula! :o) Please tell!

Ziru said...

Love your new bags! Make more!!! 11 more to go haha!

antmee said...

Thank you far encouraging me to de-clutter! You also always inspire me to grab some fabric and have a go at making a bag! Yours always look like fun.

Mandy said...

Smocking is so pretty. When I sat for my Fashion and Clothing for GCE O level, One of my practical is to make a child garment plus hand stitches. I remembered I did smocking on the yoke. It was a yellow dress but I have no idea what happened to it and other pieces I submitted, after all, it was in 1980.

Atasha said...

I, like you use to try to get the bottom of my bags to match perfectly but the last large bag I made it was off so much I decided to put gathers in it and it looked great. Like it was supposed to be that way from the get go :-)
I really love the Kate Greenaway shoulder bag. At first glance the fabric actually looks like embroidered linen

Liverpool Lou (Anne) said...

More fab bags, particularly love fabric on the first two :)
Anne xx

marina said...

hi how to purchase this bag? how much?

Projects By Jane said...

Hi Marina,

You probably don't realise this but I made these bags in 2010. These bags were all sold in 2010. Sorry.

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