Good day to you all. The holiday season is well and truly upon us now. For many, that means visitors, and visiting. We are hopeful that the arranged visits of our family will be able to take place at the beginning of this month and again at the end of the month, and that they won’t be thwarted by pinging!
I decided to crack on with my new little bag/pouch quite soon after posting the last Stitching News. I had to think through the various stages carefully so that I worked in the right order! Many of you will know my love of using denim for bags and pouches of various sizes and for a variety of uses. I love the recycling element, and as denim is a universal fabric loved by many; young and older, items made with denim often makes very acceptable gifts.
On the left are the elements I was going to use. I had cut out the two embroidered pieces from a pouch I bought on a visit to India many years ago. I have used the pouch extensively for carrying either my phone or my camera for many years. Not long ago I noticed how forlorn it was looking, especially at the bottom corners which were threadbare. The front of it had faded hugely too, as can be seen by the difference in colour of the two patches. The small one was on the back of the pouch, and therefore never in the sun! Whereas the embroidery on the front was often in the sun, and that had yellowed the denim too. The red cord which was the hanging cord, was in good condition, so I also used a short length of that, on the new pocket/bag section as you will see in the last photo of the finished item.
I had made the zipped “pouch” seen in the photo above, several years ago, but have never used it. It was made with recycled jeans denim, and was lined. It is a very simple little bag. I used a method of putting the zip and lining in at the same time. I shall always be grateful to Helen who showed me this technique. I have used it dozens and dozens of times since, and taught it to many people. It is an efficient and tidy method. The secret is to buy zips which are longer than you actually need, so that you are not having to move the zip pull out of the way when stitching. If you have never used this approach before, I have a detailed, step by step illustrated account in the link below. I photographed the stages of this technique as I was making a small coin purse. If it interests you click on the link below, to access the process.
https://stitchingnews.wordpress.com/2018/02/
Back to the new bag/ pocket! I decided to make another smaller pocket, without a zip or fastening, which I could stitch to the front of the ready made bag. I made it a little smaller as its predominant use is for my phone.
First I needed to “tidy up” the embroidery sections, and I did this by “bagging” them with another piece of denim.
Then I machine appliqued the small one to the back of the ready made bag. This was a little awkward, because I had to stitch in a rather confined area, also coping with turning it 360 degrees to stitch along each edge!
It was neat, which I was satisfied with.
I then made the new pocket by cutting twice the finished length, x my chosen width.
The reason for doubling the length was because it would be folded in half, eventually, to create the front and the back of this new bag. I also cut a piece of wadding and lining fabric to the same measurements.
First I layered the front and the wadding together, and stitched the embroidery piece to the front of the new pocket material, before layering the lining (wrong side to the wadding). I tacked all three layers together, and simply quilted them. I only needed to trim minimally as it was still virtually the original size. I bound the two short ends.
I laid it with the right sides together with the zipped pouch, placing the new bag, about .75″ below the zip. Having anchored it carefully with tacking stitches, I then stitched about a 2.5″ by 3″ oblong through both layers : i.e. the new bag and the zipped bag, ensuring a strong attachment. (Again, working inside a confined area, and turning the bags 360 degrees, in order to sew the oblong, was rather taxing! N.B. I had not applied the bindings at this stage, This photo was taken after completing the project!)
I could now bring the bottom edge of the new pocket up to match the top edge, as you can see in the photo above. The linings are showing now as the inside of the bag and it was now actually beginning to resemble a “bag/pocket”. I pinned together the raw edges of this new front “pocket” on each side of the bag, ready to bind them.
When I cut the bindings for the side edges of the bag, I added another 4″ to the length, because I wanted to take the bindings over the top of the bag, leaving a loop above the zip, on each side. The final shoulder strap is then attached through the loop on either side of the bag. I prefer a cross body strap on my bags, it feels more secure, and leaves two hands free!
After assessing how much of the excess binding was needed, I stitched the two loop ends through all the layers of the back of the zipped bag.
You can now see in the photo to the left where I added a short length of the red cord; at the very bottom edge of the new pocket. So I was able to stitch the edges of the cord in with the binding at this stage, ensuring hidden ends. I hand couched the cord to the fabric of the pocket.
Finally I anchored the front bottom corners to the fabric of the zip bag, ensuring that it doesn’t swing out of line.
I have thoroughly enjoyed making this project, and as I have been routing around in my recycled denim supply, I can see myself gradually stitching a little supply of stock items which my become gifts in the future!
For those of you who have made a hussif with me, I am sure you will recognise that this is an adaptation of the hussif pattern.
I have been spurred on in the last two weeks, to use one of my plant eco prints, which is printed onto paper, in a new way. I have made cards, bookmarks, tags, etc for years, stitched into them for years, and stitched into the actually leaves, after waxing etc. I Have painted them, cut them out, made several books of differing styles, using them in many ways! I LOVE the actual process of eco printing onto paper, so am constantly keeping my mind open to fresh ideas!
So, this time I have chosen a print of a stem of montbretia/crocosmia seed heads, with a leaf. They had been pressed between a folded piece of paper, giving prints from the back and the front surfaces, which is what you see below. From this source, a new sketch book is in the process of being developed.
First, as seen in the photo above, which is the introduction in the sketch book, I used a fine black drawing pen to outline the detail, and to add some fine dots in places to highlight the detail of the darker areas on the edges of the print on the right. When you eco print anything which is not flat, it often prints out with a “halo”. Hence the rather abstract irregular shapes that hardly represent seed heads! This is the beauty of eco printing! You often don’t know what results you will be getting especially if it is the first time you use that particular plant!
I think that there is still something quite intriguing about this result, especially after adding the fine drawn detail, which has emphasised and brought out the detail. I had no preconceived ideas of what results might be produced!
Below are two of my drawings/sketches taking ideas from this inspiration. The photo shows the sketch book opened out showing the two pages.
Prior to starting in my sketch book I made some enlarged and reduced size photocopies of the double eco print with the fine drawn marks. The intention was to cut out small areas to include in my fresh drawings. (On this occasion, I have worked onto a piece of drawing paper, gluing the finished results into my sketch book, rather than collaging and drawing straight onto the page.)
The inclusion of the various patches helps to create a reference between the pages, and to the original inspiration.
As I have worked on the pages I have been overlapping my new marks onto the collaged patches so .that they become a part of the new drawing”.
I have used a tombow black felt tip pen (recommended by Janine, my friend from Abu Dhabi). We have liaised frequently over the years, sharing the ideas and inspiration, media and tools that we have found really useful in our work. The collaboration, and sharing is invaluable and often stimulates us to getting back into working again if we have had a lax period. Other times we feel inspired to try out a technique or idea the other might have suggested! Of course our results are ALWAYS so different, which adds to the intrigue and interest! The Tombow pen is double ended, having a medium rounded tip and a fine tip. I also used my fine black drawing pen, and a white pen. I have long felt inspired by the monochromatic results of just using black and white.
The right hand page above, has a feel of crazy abstract flower heads, which came from a very tiny area of the original print, which looks like two tiny flowers and stems! Again there are three small patches of photocopy within this page too.
On the two pages above, I have taken the floral idea further by cutting out the”flower head” images from the photocopies, (using large and tiny!) then drawing or infilling them with more marks etc. I worked on the left hand one first, and really liked the result. Then I tried a different interpretation on the right hand page. I feel both offer plenty of ideas for applique especially taking sections from either and using small areas as embellishments for small items! I shall also make some prints on photographic paper for cards. It is really interesting to start from one source and build up subsequent sketch book pages with the progressions.
When I first was introduced to the British artist Helen Wells, it was during the sketchbook revival series which happens online in March. I watched a video and listened to her thoughts about the way she used her sketchbooks. I signed up for her blog, and I am inspired every time a new post comes in. She encourages avid use of a sketch book, for gathering all your ideas, and having a permanent record of your work.
Her style is not my style, but she encourages you to keep at it, and really develop your own style, which just comes with constant practice. I would not have thought I had a style, but I am begininng to recognise what I like, and what works for me! I Shall continue practising for a long time. I find it soothing, meditative and really fascinating. I like working with a source; and if that source comes from something I Have done, sll the better! Making these single page folded books, is not daunting. They take five minutes to make. I have an A3 drawing sketch book, and I tear out a page a time when I want a new one. The “drawing” sketch book wrinkles if you add water colour to the pages, so if you want to work in water colour you do need to use watercolour paper to work on. Water colours work well on wallpaper lining paper, if you want to save on costs. Buying the 140 gm weight one in B&Q is my favourite, and you have more options for the shape of your hand made sketch books too! I have recently cut a square of wall paper lining paper, from the width of the roll. A strip of 11 inches cut across the width of the roll will give a single page folded book with just over 5″ square pages. So nice to have a different shape! A different oblong shape would have a starting point of the width being longer than the length!
The link below, refers back to my second post in April this year, which explains how to make the book from one piece of folded paper. As I re-read it just now, I noticed an error in the explanation of how to make the folds. I have edited that post now, so that it reads correctly. I apologise to anyone who tried the method, who may have found it a little confusing. It was a very simple error, and anyone trying it would probably have seen how to correct it. However I have re written it to make it really clear.
https://stitchingnews.wordpress.com/2021/04/
So until next time…..happy stitching!
Di
Di Wells Stitching News 