Drawstring bag

Lately I feel as though I've started a dozen things and not finished any of them. I have WIPs sitting all over the house. But today I started AND completed a little project.

Just to be clear, I did NOT make
this muslin for the fitted jacket!

Back in May I got a new sewing machine, but I haven't had a chance to even open the box, the summer and fall were so crazy. It's been years since I sewed anything, so I had nothing in particular driving me. But now... my youngest needs a costume in about three weeks' time, and I'm out of practice and unfamiliar with the machine. A very skilled sewer and wonderful person is doing the design work, but I'll have to take her model and use it to construct the costume, which is a sort of a steampunky Victorian-inspired dress. Petticoat, skirt, draped apron, fitted jacket.


I was watching a free mini-class at Craftsy which was about different sewing machine feet (a great refresher) and spotted another free mini-class on basic bag making. Whee!

I had some quilting cotton around, so...






...I made a
drawstring bag. It's lined, with a sturdy channel for the drawstrings.

The first attempt at making a drawstring in matching fabric was a failure - I think the pull cord made from folded bias tape was too wide, so I sewed too close to the edge. So instead, I used a couple of lengths of four-strand braided twine from a macrame disaster a few months ago for the drawstrings. That worked!

Later, I managed to make a drawstring anyway, by using a length of twine as the pull cord instead of the folded bias tape. Couldn't let the failure go. Re-learning sewing and learning this new machine have both been frustrating today, but finishing a simple little sewing project and succeeding on the drawstring felt good.

My skilled sewist friend set me some homework so that when I get to the fitted jacket bust curve, I don't screw it up. I am to sew spheres from felt, as it's a forgiving fabric. Since it's the winter holiday of course I feel more ambitious than that, and I'm going to make a snowman.

Fused plastic

If you've read the novel or seen the 1990s A Room With a View, there's a hilarious scene where an adventurous Lady Novelist confronted with a damp spot of ground tells her timid friend, "Observe my foresight! I never venture forth without my mackintosh squares. At any time, one may have to sit upon damp ground or cold marble."

Now, I have a request from a Literary Adventuress who needs a mackintosh square of her own.

At first, I thought of making up some real mackintosh squares. Authenticity! But rubberized cloth is hard to come by, and plasticized versions usually look like just like cheap tablecloths. Who wants to attempt to sit with any elegance on an little square patterned with pictures of  fried chicken?

I bought some heavy-duty waterproofing spray in the hardware store, but feel a little dubious about whether weatherized fabric will last when folded and shoved into a backpack repeatedly.

So in the short term, I'll make a smaller waterproof pad.

We used to call these sit-upons in Girl Scouts. It's one of the first projects Brownies do, usually with carpet remnants or fleece or something with bubble wrap and duct tape.

This is Step 1 of my little sit-upon project - fusing together plastic grocery bags to make a thick, fabric-like, sewable lining.

It's easy - cut the plastic bags open so that they lie flat, and iron them between two sheets of parchment paper with the iron set to polyester. The plastic is fused one layer at a time, not all at once. It becomes very dense and workable.

What this might miss in true Literary Elegance it will gain in reuse/recycle hippie mom points in the refined airs of Berkeley. One hopes.

Fabric inspiration

More doodling today....

... with Miyazaki on my mind. I adore the chibi Totoro, the little white forest spirit... and the kodama, the tree spirits.

No-Face is one of my favorite Miyazaki spirits. I'd like to draw No-Face better.

But I'm also planning for a fabric/stitch/mixedmedia piece.(Now that I have some space to work.)

I'd like to build a grandma-related piece. Most of her things either went to Goodwill or weren't in good enough shape to give away,  but I have one or two pieces of her clothing that I couldn't quite get rid of since they're so strongly associated with her - especially a blouse in her favorite royal purple. I thought I would use a sampler model in layered squares to organize it with some other fabrics, then layer in some of the beads from her necklaces. I have an idea about adding images in over the layering, but we'll see. I think I need to start from the base and work from there.

Inspiration

I really love the work of the alternative quilter Jude Hill. There's something about the depth of the

Detail from How One Heart Might Affect Another, Jude Hill

textures she develops that is almost visually kinesthetic. I feel a very physical, sensory, sort of synesthesia when looking at her work, as though by looking with my eyes I also feel the roughness of the cloth in its layers with my skin.  I wish I could take a class with her, but instead I'll just have to let her work inspire me. Her site: http://spiritcloth.bigcartel.com/

by Anja Kieboom

I also found the Prayer Flag Project site today, and am enjoying the different styles and colors of the artists' work. I like that each piece is meant to be a prayer, that there's a concentrated idea and emotion presented with each flag.  
http://theprayerflagproject.blogspot.com/