Sunday, 1 June 2014

BLOG 201

 

Another week, another bag! I had a strip of bargello patchwork left over from demonstration years ago and there seemed too much work in it to throw it away. So I quilted it onto a strip of batting with free-motion machining.


                                      Quilted bargello

                                        Detail of quilting


I decided to construct this bag more easily, the way I always made tea cosies in the olden days when they were fashionable. I folded the quilted strip in half with RS in. I folded the lining, cut to the same size, in half too with RS together and placed all the pieces together. I pinned round the outside edges to hold the layers together during sewing.

                          Lining and quilted outer fabric

 I sewed a generous ¼” seam along the two long sides and left the top edge open and the folded base edges free.

                                         Side seams


I trimmed away the excess fabric across the lower corners of the bag.

                             Trim the corners

 The bag was then turned RS out, placing the lining inside the bag.

                                  Turn RS out


The corners were shaped by sewing across from the lining side.

                            Shaping the corner

                           Shaped corner


And, if I had had my wits about me, I would have made sure that the lining was a lot longer so that I could have turned over the excess fabric and sewed it down to bind the top of the bag. As it was, I had to trim what was there and prepare a separate binding.

                                Trim the lining

                              Prepared binding


Handles were made in the same way as described previously and there was another bag for sale at Gresford this month, 17th to 20th.

                                   Prepared handles


Last month I attended a fabric book workshop run by Maryke Philips, ably abetted by her husband Geoff. They trade as ‘Batiks and Beads’ which meant that they had wonderful supplies to support the workshop. This was outside my sphere of sewing experiences but I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop. It was the colour of her samples that attracted me and here are some of my humble attempts so far. Beads were used extensively throughout Maryke’s work and they looked lovely but this girl decided a while ago that she loathes sewing on beads and it’s a direction she doesn’t particularly want to go in!!!

                      Felt, thread and stitch

                       Stamping and stitch

                              Pre-cut houses

                          Silk velvet rubbing 1

                         Silk velvet rubbing 2

                          Pattern and stitch

                          Feather stitch

 

 

 

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