Tote for Natalie.
Hello I have finished another handbag. It's a simple tote with an amazing lining and embroidery! I wanted to vary this handbag by my last two but was limited by not having enough materials. For instance, instead of having two handles on the wide face of the bag, I would have loved to have one longer handle go from end to end but I wasn't sure if I had a length of the lining fabric long enough to accomplish this but I want to try it out so there is a chance you will see a FOURTH HANDBAG, especially since one of my bags had a maple syrup tragedy. The bag is for my best friend Natalie who always sends me care packages and I love her. She is responsible for some of my best memories since high school.
I know everyone is wondering if the zipper is crooked; the answer is yes! Since I didn't have a lot of material I did the best I could to disguise it. Aside from this flaw, I am happy with the way the bag turned out
27 May 2010 Comments (0)
Aunt Bag.
I sewed another handbag, this time for my Aunt Shelly, because she is enthusiastic about my hobbies. This one is a little bit larger than the last one and rectangular, not trapezoidal. Also my finishing techniques got a lot more polished and I'm very happy with what I learned. The outer fabric is a print I ordered from reprodepot.com in 2007 and the inner fabric and handles are from a top sheet. The bag is in a similar style as my last bag with a small pocket on the outside but this time there is no divider, just one pocket on the inside. It still offers more space though, because it's bigger overall. Also, I hid the seam allowance between the inner fabric and the interfacing, so technically this bag is reversible though I don't see why one would want to hide the retro pink fabric. I hope nobody is going to roll their eyes if I make another handbag, because I am currently in the process of doing so.
The zipper is set in rather than joining two pieces of fabric. The inner fabric matches the zipper fabric color.
I sewed the handles with zig-zag stitch because it made them feel sturdier. Also I secured the handles between the outer fabric and the inner fabric such that you don't see the unfinished edge of the handles on the inside edge of the bag. You can also see here that the lining is brown, but it's not very exciting.
17 April 2010 Comments (0)
Tote Bag.
Hello how is everybody? I have a lot on my mind, that's just like me. I made a handbag out of pajama pants and a bed sheet! It has a zippered pocket in the front and two storage areas inside the bag so I can separate my laptop from my lip gloss. I made it without a pattern. It looks decent but the details are all off. If there were a version of failblog for the detail-oriented, this would be on it.
The outer fabric was from a pair of pajama pants from Old Navy that I got in 2007 that were always too big in the waist and had too little coverage in the butt. Before I cut the pieces for the handbag I made sure to trace the individual pants pieces onto scrap fabric and now I have a pattern for pajama pants! I never have to buy pajama pants again!! The interior fabric is a pink top sheet. I never use top sheets so I have a lot of fabric to play with.
This project sat out in my living room incomplete for several months during which I abandonned a sweater in progress, started an herb garden, bought a second computer, lost eight pounds, learned to cook, and applied to graduate school. When I started this I meticulously ripped all the seams and then spent extra time matching up the print so that it would be continuous, and then I immediately forgot about how much time I spent doing that and sewed the thing all carelessly last night. If you look at the top piece above the zipper, and if you were to rotate it 180 degrees it would match up perfectly with the bottom piece. Yes, I sewed it upside down. Another issue is that the zipper is too short for the bag so there are little open areas at the corners of the bag by the zipper. I was just happy at how serendipitous it was that the zipper was a perfect shade of turquoise because I bought the zipper years ago with no intentions that I didn't care that it was too short. Functionally, it's not a detriment to the bag and furthermore, if you were to scrutinize commercially made items you would find the same shortcomings.
The bag is 15" wide at the bottom x 13" tall (since the shape is roughly trapezoidal, the width is 14" at the top). I also used some mid to heavy weight interfacing in between each layer of flimsy pajama fabric and interior sheet fabric. I wish I could provide more instruction but my biggest secret is that I really don't know how to sew. I just put fabric through a machine and articles come out. I'm detail oriented, but not a perfectionist. If I were a perfectionist, I would have made a pattern first of all. All I'm going to say is that making something like this is easy, just pin some fabric together like I did, throw it through a sewing machine, and you will get a bag.
Beyond the zippered pocket, the lining is pink!
A divider sewn into the bag separates two storage areas.
01 April 2010 Comments (0)
Fake Sofa.
Hello blog. What is it like to update this thing? Anyway, all that stuff above, I sewed it. Here is some backstory that is also personal lifey. I moved into My First Apartment in April. Two things made me nervous about getting my own apartment: buying a coffee table, and buying a sofa. Coffee tables typically become magnets for clutter and if you are the type of person who is comfortable putting your feet up on your coffee table, it's probably not a nice enough table for you to take pride in. We did not have a coffee table in the house I grew up in, and our living room was designed by a SET DESIGNER. The idea of buying a sofa gave me anxiety because I am only one person and I already have a chair. I don't have guests over, because I don't have any friends. Another source of anxiety was that I did the adult thing and got a queen sized bed but didn't want to get rid of my old twin that I'd only had for six months. I also loved the frame - it's the Tolga from Ikea. I decided to dress up the Tolga as if it were a sofa.
THREE MONTHS PASSED. Jcarolinecreative.com, my favorite online fabric store (for the selection, the LOW LOW PRICES and her tutorials) was having a summer sale and the print pictured (which is a Kokka fabric from Japan and no it's no longer on the website because I bought up the entire stock) was on sale - practically 50% off - and there were only nine yards in stock which was only ONE YARD LESS than what I calculated I'd need with a generous margin of error. I bought up all the yardage AND I got a free rotary cutter through a promotion.
First, I cut the yardage for the "sheet" part that covers the mattress because those measurements were non-negotiable and then I improvised the pillow cases from part Kokka and part of Ikea pillow cases that came with my duvet cover- they're the neutral "relief" color of the smaller accent pillow cases; they also make up part of the backs of the larger cushions. I used all of the repurposed Ikea fabric and have about a yard of the Kokka fabric left over.
Pattern
Sheet: Sew Your Own Fitted Sheets by Debbie Colgrove (only up to step #3; I simply tucked everything under, as this doesn't need the attention and fastidiousness a bed would require.
Pillow cases: JCaroline Creative Pillowcase Instructions
Materials
Eight or so yards of some Kokka fabric
Two pillowcases worth of Ikea pillow case fabric
I used regular White cotton thread
Pellon 911FF Fusible Interfacing for the sheet part (Learning experience: Fusible wasn't the most ideal for this project, because there was a large surface area to iron and so the ironing job isn't so smooth.
This is how it looks without the accent pillows in my scarcely-decorated apartment.
The pillows have the cool back overlap thing like you'd find on a pillow sham and requires no fasteners.
26 July 2009 Comments (0)
The Hand Off.
Hi blog. How are you? I am AWFUL. Here's a piece I drew in 2005, but updated it. It's a Flash movie, about two and a half minutes long. Click on the image above or click here to view it.
First I took a picture of a canvas.
Then I overlayed the drawing on the canvas in Photoshop.
Then I painted the picture in with my opacity set such that the paint looked like it was being absorbed by the canvas.
Then I embroidered a few stitches and photographed those.
Then I made them all designy in Photoshop as to create a landscape.
I placed the landscape behind the people.
Then I exported two layers from Photoshop: (1) the background, and (2) the people.
I made a Flash movie with the two components moving at different rates.
Ta da!
Also my Women and Children piece got an honorable mention at the LICA Show.
02 April 2008 Comments (0)
Cupcake Apron for Ruchi.
Hiiiii bloggg! This is another sewing project, a cupcake apron for my roommate Ruchi. This is the perfect gift because:
1. She is totally into cupcakes they are her favorite thing.
2. She recently picked up the hobby of baking and aprons are a staple of baking.
3. It's handmade, which is a requirement for my gift-giving.
I got the fabric, ribbon, and pattern from jcarolinecreative, which has such an extensive selection (yay!) but I drove myself insane trying to find the perfect fabric as Ruchi would have loved so many. Woven fabric is so cheap compared to yarn and I definitely respond more to textiles. Plus sewing is fast and with each thing I make I get better and better. I've sort of plateaued with knitting; I started doing things my own way rather than learning the proper techniques and that has inhibited my learning.
There are some technical aspects about the apron which aren't perfect and they betray that the item is handmade, but that gives it charm. I finally learned to sew in a straight line (that little flipper thing that "locks" the fabric in place when you flip it down? It totally needs to be down!) and I'm proud of that and I cut the pattern out on my own using Kraft Paper, which I have a ton of that I didn't know how to ditch...until now. NOW I CAN MAKE PATTERNS.
I also made piping, which was kind of a pain in the ass in the way that I know that with enough practice I will master it. The ribbon detail on the pocket is an afterthought and is therefore not neat. I had to take that part from the neckstraps (like a graft) and I added a snap enclosure for it because it could no longer be tied around the neck or fit over the head if I had sewn the edges to make like a closed neck. The apron is tied around the back.
Pattern From jcaroline creative
Fabric Robert Kaufman medium weight cotton; Cloud Cupcakes - Sweet Tooth.
Extras Ribbon: Like this, but in orange; also some snaps and some cording and bias tape for the piping.
Pants vs no pants.
Sloppy details, but an attempt yet.
22 February 2008 Comments (0)
Second Box Bag.
Hellooo. I made another box bag. This one for my friend Brian's girlfriend. I got some heavier needles for my machine and was able to get this one looking mostly like the example I followed, nevermind some quirky slantiness. I intend to give this to her when I gift Brian with his handknit size 13 socks which are probably too small (complete, but waiting for a trip through the wash) for his birthday.
This item is "interfaced" with canvas, lined with old pajama pants from Old Navy, and the exterior fabric is from Reprodepot, who, by the way, LINKED ME THANKS.
Goatse-ing the bag. Plaid inside!
I have a backlog of completed and near-completed items to be introduced but my camera is a total diva. It has some sort of congenital defect and it's entiteld to free repair but the problem is intermittent so I've been waiting for it to screw up so that I can do something specific to it so that Canon can confirm the problem, but of course it only screws up when I really need it to work and it hasn't screwed up since I learned what I need to do for Canon. I baked over 40 heart shaped butter cookies for Valentines Day and gave two to each of my friends telling them to eat one and share the other with someone they love and it's as if it never happened.
I also started school again and do some minor knitting during classes and the like but that's pretty much it. I'm having a great semester so far and I've met some amazing people. I gave up sculpture because of my sudden but not unexplained distaste for that microcosm of The Art Department and so many opportunities have opened up to me as a result. I've got a lot of stuff going on beyond the realm of what this blog is typically about and I look forward to introducing it all once my camera stops being all Beyonce.
16 February 2008 Comments (0)
First Bag.
I consider myself pretty candid about things I make. However, for my first major sewing project in years I think I'd rather pretend that my first time came out totally awesome and hide all the ways I felt challenged or may have screwed up, which, for the purposes of this entry, are all theoretical. I think that when it comes to first times, it's perfectly okay to not try to be perfect, but that's the only time it's okay. Expect more indiscretion the next time I make this bag, which will probably be once a week until I work my way up to Amy Butler's Weekender Bag, which has been in my future since I saw it on craftoholic.
I haven't been able to do a single thing until I made this bag. I go back to school Monday and owe a boy with size 13 feet a pair of socks and I only have one toe. I did this bag all in one night (as in, all night) and there are some definite "lol"s about it. I used all recovered materials which made it easy to not be precious, but then there were some aesthetic compromises I would not ordinarily have made. Canvas was the "interfacing" and clean parts of soiled pajamas made up the lining on the inside. I paint, therefore I soil clothes and happen to have well over 100 square feet of canvas ready. The outer lining was made up of fabric scraps from some fabric I had bought from reprodepot once. I intended to make a mixed-media project from it but I guess it never materialized. :) I bought the zipper months ago in Boston and I have no idea why. My mom's house is still kind of new to me and I can't find anything (also, she hides things) so I used the straightening iron I use for my hair to iron out the fabric. That part was awesome.
I used my late Great Aunt Dorothy's sewing machine. IT IS ACTUALLY VINTAGE. IT IS FROM THE 1960S. IT REMEMBERS A DIFFERENT TYPE OF BRING OUR TROOPS HOME. I don't know anything else about this mystery machine. My mom supplied me with a Singer manual from 1968 but the machine doesn't say Singer on it anywhere and the model number taxonomy doesn't match the Singer convention. I thought it might be a Pfaff because of the way the knobs are styled, plus the old Pfaffs went crazy with the knobs and this has three. I hate that I'm a total genius and yet even with magic Google I cannot identify this machine. It sucked when trying to figure out the freakin Rube Goldberg device that is threading the needle and I'm still not sure why sometimes I get a zig-zag stitch when all I want is not that. There were a lot of knick knacks that my mom gave me along with the sewing machine and so to get near the zipper I used some foot that was just slimmer than the default but I don't know if it was a zipper foot per se. There's so much I need to learn about this machine it's amazing(ly ill-timed with the start of a new semester).
I had to handstitch a lot at the end because the fabric was too thick and I didn't know to handle it, plus I was cranky. I think handstitching is invaluable anyway, and would not mind improving my hand at stitching. I want to make these bags for everybody and put goodies in them and give them as gifts. Actually, when I was done sewing this one, I thought about putting my sewing notions in it but that reminded me of this joke that either belongs to George Carlin or Rusty Ward about buying a garbage can and carrying it home in a bag, then putting the garbage bag inside the can.
References
Parikha
She was the original and she helped me track down some links after they got moved when she changed her blog!
Drago Knit Fly
The tutorial I actually followed.
Japanese Translation
This is one of the links Parikha used to make her bag...I found it among bookmarks! So prudent!!
24 January 2008 Comments (0)
Call Your Mom.
"Call Your Mom" is a public installation I did on the Stony Brook Campus for Unbound, which is part of the Shirley Strum Kenny Art Festival.
I constructed 45 small ramekin cakes out of felt and hung these from the lower branches from a single tree on campus, located outside the south side of the library. The bottom of each cake is embroidered with a piece of face-value advice on small things one can do to lead a more fulfilling life and improve their interactions with others. To wit : "Call your mom", "Avoid trans fats", "Say 'please' and 'thank you'", "Don't yell." By using common crafters materials, I hope that my project has an accessible, handmade simplicity to it. I am not attempting to be profound, shock, or make a statement. By contrast, I aim to amuse and charm.
Click here to listen to Alton Frabetti, curator of Unbound, talk about the installation on Stony Brook Radio.
The complete set of photos may be viewed here.
12 April 2007 Comments (0)
Embroidered Beret.
I embroidered my beret. I don't know what else to tell you.
28 February 2007 Comments (0)
iPod Cozy.
I knit a cozy for my brand new iPod Nano. I followed Julie Ree's instructions up until a point and then strayed, such is my nature even though I will it not to be. The inside is lined in red felt and the button hides a functional snap enclosure. The fabric is old paJAMZ! from GAP that I got paint on. Both the cozy and the iPod were destroyed in May when they got run over by a car.
19 February 2007 Comments (0)