Starting Off on the Wrong Foot - Happy New Year?

Lots of sewing bloggers have done a recap of all the great things they made this year just to make me feel inadequate. So continuing in this downer mode I am going to tell you what a failure my latest project was. The weather outside today is a very cold hard rain which adds to my gloomy mood and the only brightness on this day is the glow off my computer screen. My sewing machine is banished to the opposite  unlit corner of the room.

I started of with this great vision of how I would make another wool handbag as lovely as this one.

EVERYTHING about this bag went well and I sold it immediately at a craft show after getting numerous "favorites" in my Etsy shop.

I loved working with wool for these two bags as well. 

I ordered some wool plaid online from MOOD and my first problem was that it was a much larger plaid than I thought ( my fault). It also smelled like WOOL!,  of course. So I spent time running it on air in the dryer with a dryer sheet. Then tried Febreze and then I just washed it and air dried it. Finally it was acceptably less sheep-like.

 Here are some steps in the building of the bag.  This shows an inside view no one ever gets to see.

 Here is a mistake I had to rip out.

                           Cramming all these thick layers under the presser foot was a drag.

 Then comes the birthing of the bag where you have to pull the whole thing back through the hole in the lining.

And that is when you see that what you had envisioned as a really classy classic bag is actually NOT!

After flipping it I had to do the top-stitching around the upper edge. Due to the thickness of the straps with piping the machine just went nuts and went into spasms leaving about a half inch unstitched and a few thread "bird nests" which I couldn't bring myself to photograph.

I had used a gray faux leather on my loved bag and it worked very well. The black vinyl (faux) not so much.  I made piping which looks great but a larger expanse is yucky.

                                                                               

It's the "Saggy Baggy" Bag.  The very stiff interfacing I used around the sides should have been used on the front and back to prevent the fold over tab with the enormous button from dragging it down. There is actually a magnetic snap under it. Too bad that I wasted it.

I do like the piping across the outer pocket and 

on the tab. Oh, I already said that. 

Well, I liked it so much that I decided I had to have more. Around the seams would have been nice but the thicknesses entailed would be too much.  I never

thought about it though when I added it to the strap which I made the same width as the bag side.      

                                                                                                                          

What a beast this was to turn back right sides out. If I had made it narrow towards the center it would reasonably sit on a shoulder and not flare out as seen below.

Even this photo turned out bad. Where did those weird dots come from??
  

AND the plaid is not straight at this seam.

And speaking of photos, they are all wrong because the color is so off. I tried all kinds of settings which I really don't get.  Smart capture usually works fine for me in natural light.  Not one of these shows that this fabric is not a bright white and black houndstooth plaid with colored flecks BUT a dull beige - y white and black houndstooth plaid with colored flecks!!!
 I changed lighting, locations, settings and the white is still way too bright.

Oh well, I don't need great photos since this disaster is not going to appear in my Etsy shop.

I will probably cut it up and rework the elements into something else much smaller.

Some sewing bloggers call this a WADDER.

Any suggestions?

A Kitchen with a French Accent



This photo captured in the market of Aix-en-Provence in southern France is a favorite of mine, as was the trip that provided it.



It has become a major feature in my kitchen.

Enlarged onto a 24" x 36" canvas (thanks to Uprinting.com)

it hangs above a small desk.

Because the wall is quite large and plain it still seemed to be a bit "lost" and  I decided it needed some friends. So I went looking for plates as the solution.

My first choice was Quimper but my budget said "NO!"

 

I found these four in a catalog from Jefferson's Monticello.   Odd that they were in a catalog pertaining to Colonial times but the description said they were of the type Thomas Jefferson "would have encountered on his trip to France"! OKAY! That's good enough for me because the were the right size, color and price and I try to 

not think about the MADE IN CHINA stamped on the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did not stop the Quimper Quest however. One day while browsing our nearby Medina Antques Mall, I spied two plates at a fabulous price and latched onto them. They now live in my corner cabinet with some others found mostly on Ebay. This may become another blog topic someday.

 

A trip to the Country Living Fair in Columbus, OH in September turned up this cute little rooster who sits on top of the cabinet. (SHHH! He's made in the Philippines)



This week some new touches were added when I acquired some great Moda toweling that I wanted to display and not actually get all wet and dirty. They were changed into pillows.

The beehive and the grains image are from the wonderful GRAPHICS FAIRY and the Boulangerie one was a graphics download from Etsy. The Grain sack pillow is made from Osnaburg fabric which I love but I have ordered more of this toweling because I love it so much. Watch for some in my Etsy shop THIMBLEFINGERS.



A few of my favorite things

A trip to Provence


Mas du Petit Grava  B&B

      






A special fabric


Fabric made in Avignon


















A lucky photo

The Market in Aix-en-Provence

The paintings of Van Gogh


A very long must read for everything Van Gogh

The Graphics Fairy


check out the great stuff at graphicsfairy.com

 The NY Public Library


Visit the NYPL digital collection

All of these came together to help me create something to help hold these images in one place.






I always seem to return to working with fabrics and thread and now these other visual sources have allowed me to be more personally involved with the elements of mixed media. The photos and some of the graphics were transferred to fabric with Leslie Riley TAP paper.  Some were reprinted into card stock. A few ribbons, raffia and fake lavender finished it off


 I left this a wall hanging with no frame because it was totally intuitive with no preconception of the outcome. Once I saw that the name of the French fabric manufacturer was on the salvage edge of the piece I couldn't bear to cut it off.