May Projects

I have been working on the handbag for the Sew Your Style competition. My friend Suggested the theme Circus, I found that pretty inspiring as I like vintage circus posters.

I did the designs and made a start last month but I did most of the sewing this month. Its a leather bag with an applique design of an elephant.

Materials

Leathers

Red, Blue, Dark Yellow, Turquoise, Purple, Gold, Silver, Pale Yellow, Lilac, Black, Green, White, Pale Pink, Dark Pink, Charcoal.

Turqouise Webbing

Rainbow Ric Rac

Rainbow metal Clips, D Rings and a Slider

Coral Zip with yellow teeth

Striped/spotted cotton fabric

Coutil

Sheet iron on Glue

Medium Interfacing

Craft Glue

I decided to redo my design for the elephant as it was too like one of my inspiration pictures.

I traced the design cut out the pieces and carefully drew shapes onto the leather, I always use biro then cut inside the lines. Biro draws really well on leather but I've seen biro marks on other peoples stuff and it looks awful so I always try to remove them. I placed all the pieces for the background and used craft glue to stick them in place. I glued a piece of coutil on the back to stop the leather stretching and stitched everything down with waxed strong thread.

I carefully cut out all the pieces for the elephants and backed them with interfacing. I stitched the saddles first then glued them to the elephants. I made the two umbrellas and the plinths and placed them on the background. I stared at it for a long time and decided to add in a base strip at the bottom of the background for two reasons. Firstly the new design of the elephant exposed an area where all the points met messily. And secondly, I didn't want to stitch through 5 layers of leather and fabric when stitching the base to the picture panel. when I was happy with the layout I glued everything in place and set about stitching everything down. I used a leather hand needle mostly, except where I was using a hole twice, I would swap to a regular needle as leather needles are so sharp they cut the existing threads.

I bought the webbing for the strap to match the elephant, I was obsessed with having something rainbow on it so I bought the ric rac. I twisted two strips of ric rac around each other and stitched it down the middle of the webbing. I forgot to stitch the slider on the webbing first, I did one of the clips, so I had to put the slider on, then the second clip then stitch the end of the strap to the slider in a very awkward way. But it looked great.

I used my bendy ruler to measure around the curve of the picture panel, I measured and cut a piece of leather for the side/top of the bag. I had some two colour zips left from a previous project and chose the coral one with yellow teeth. I marked out an slit for the zip in the leather, carefully cut it out and sewed in the zip with a regular needle. I cut two pieces of leather to hold the D rings and backed them with coutil before slipping them through the D rings and stitching them in place.

I stitched the side/top around the edge on the picture panels using clips to keep everything aligned. Then stitched on the base panel.

Rear view of stitching

I used the same measurements to cut out pieces for the lining. I backed my striped cotton with plain cotton. With rights sides together I stitched a zip opening in the side/top panel, I cut down the middle of the opening and turned the backing fabric through the hole and stuck it down to create a tidy opening. I added pockets to the larger panels before tacking all the pieces together, I stitched it using the machine, then zigzagged and trimmed back the excess.

Circus bag lining

Finished circus bag lining

I put the lining inside the bag and stitched around the zip opening to secure it.

I spent ages one morning trying to get a good photograph. It was either too sunny, too much shadow, too windy, so annoying. I did finally get a good picture and sent it in to the competition. I shall just have to wait now to see if I get shortlisted. I will post a proper photo when the competition has been judged.

I dyed a sari, it was a sort of dark creamy yellow, it was not quite my colour but felt really nice. I dyed it blue, as it was not a pure natural fiber it has created more texture and given it a more vintage look.

Sari before

Sari after

I also got a duvet cover for really cheap, it was massively reduced because one of the button holes hadn't been cut, I mean how stupid. Anyway I liked the print, It's yellow with white pineapples and I thought it would make a great summer dress. I decided to use the dress pattern that I got in a charity shop the other week, simplicity 2886, I had looked at it before online but never bought it so I was really pleased to find it so cheap. I looked at the pattern, all the bits were there but a couple had been trimmed back to the size the previous owner had wanted. I also decided to change some of the pieces as I didn't want to use a contrast fabric.

I made a toile and fiddled with it till it fitted. The only panel I changed completely was the front bodice so I used the fabric from the toile as my pattern piece and just noted how much to add to the other pieces on the pattern. I carefully cut all the pieces, I tried to pattern match the pocket yoke to the skirt front and have the pattern symmetrical on the bodice. I manged to cut the skirt back wrongly so the stripes wouldn't line up, I at least spotted this before I sewed it together and cut another piece. Mum found an old sheet in her stash for the lining. I cut all the same pieces for this but made the pleats smaller and removed the pockets.

The dress went together really easily, I had to get mum to pin the straps at the back for me. Because of my alterations I didn't need elastic in the back. I stitched the skirt lining in and hemmed the skirt by hand. It fits really well and looks great, I'm really happy with it.

Duvet dress front

Duvet dress back

I also made a tote bag for my friend for her birthday. She likes wonder woman so I designed logo for it in the style of wonder woman but with my friends initial. It's made from fabrics left over from projects, some from an old sheet and a pair of trousers. It's lined with calico that I had used to make a toile ages ago. I sheet glued the pieces onto the base fabric and hand stitched them into place before making up a basic tote on my machine.

Birthday Tote

I have injured my arm, I think it's a torn muscle, I wont be able to do much of anything till the pain subsides. I was planning to start designing a special project next, less strenuous than sewing but still more than I can do at the moment. I can make a start on the research at least.