Japanese bag

This simple and beautiful bag was the inspiration for the two-quilt-messenger bag that I made last week (below).

It is constructed from three pieces – the front, the back, and a single side piece.  Each component has a blue face with a red backing.

The side panel does not come all the way up to the uppermost edges, in order to leave room for a casing, which houses the blue cord pull-ties.  The casing is just a gap between the red lining and the blue front, with two lines of stitching to define.
Because you seam the finished components wrong sides together, there is no need to leave an opening in the final construction phase in order to reverse, the way many bag patterns require.  By using the red contrasting fabric for the inside of each of the three pieces, and making no attempt to hide any seams, a beautiful line of color is created – very much like piping.

The ties are long.  Each of the two loops exit on opposite sides, so that when you pull the ties, the loop that is inside the casing opposite, tugs closed.  It’s a simple and elegant design, through and through.

I thought of this bag as I was pulling the next two quilts out of a drawer during my three weeks of purse sewing.
About 14 inches square, these two panels were a good size for a messenger bag, or what I’m calling a messenger bag.  A true messenger bag would have a fold-over flap.
I realized that once I removed the dowel sleeves, I had two of the three pieces of the model Japanese bag.  I constructed a blue strap with finished edges that was long enough to run around three sides of the bag and then up and over the shoulder (14 inches x 3 plus about 35 inches).  I included enough length to make a loop on one end that the other end would tie into, so as to make the strap adjustable.  I also added a good-sized lined pocket on the wrong side of one of the quilts.
The project made me happy for a couple of reasons.  One, it put to good use some quilts I was not crazy about as wall hangings (I love them as purse panels, though!!).  I did six of these, so I can make two more bags.  I sold this one on Sunday.  I think I will select a handle/side & bottom fabric that is much tougher than the one above, so that the bag could carry the weight of a lap top – it’s the perfect size.  Two, I was very proud of myself for figuring out how to borrow some of the construction methods of a long-admired bag.*

P.S. While sewing mine together, I realized that the curved edges were critical to the design of the indigo bag.  I had to stop my side panel seams just short of each corner, leaving a four holes that I then hand sewed.  I didn’t really want to cut the 14″ x 14″ quilted panel – doing so would have wrecked the bound edge and posed a different problem.

*  I bought this bag from a couple who made a wide variety of useful objects out of beautiful Japanese indigo cloth many years ago at a huge holiday craft fair held at Boston’s Seaport World Trade Center.  I have no name to share with you, I’m afraid!!

inspiration

What inspires each of us is a mystery.  We are inspired by different things, consistently – haven’t you found this to be true?  One person is intrigued by owls or Africa, another by doorway shapes and picket fences, someone else by the color blue.  These are not trivial inclinations.  They abide and stand at the ready to take us to a deeper and informative place, if we let them.  In that spirit (rather than in the spirit of copyright violation, mind), I share some of my collected images.  If you don’t already have a clip file and scrapbook of some sort or other – I can only ask – why not?!

Why look! It’s the purple sweater that I’m in the process of revamping in Jude Hill’s boro class (image clipped many, many years ago).
Doctored National Geographic image with stunning shapes and textures (above).
This came from a fairly recent fashion magazine.  But the next two (dug out recently from some file or other), are from the 90′s!!
Japanese things of ALL kinds inspire me, but especially textiles…. since at least sixth grade when I wrote a report on the country.  I still remember taping a picture of the flag to the front cover.
African textiles make me crazy with love and admiration. Reading “Indigo – In Search of the Color that Seduced the World” (by Catherine McKinley) right now about a young woman’s odyssey to western African, in search of both her roots and the fabulous indigo cloth.

This picture comes from a library book that is going onto my Amazon wishlist!

Each garment featured (one more unbelievably embellished after another) is drawn out in this way – making the garments seem accessible, and dare I say? Reproducible?!  Not in their finery, perhaps, but in their basic structure, and with some of the same attention to detail.
Lastly, I pinned a pieced panel onto the sweater I am updating to see how it looked this morning.  Couldn’t find the shibori that I want to use for the bottom section, so pinned up a dark, patterned lycra in its place.

Weekend’s over (almost) – whew! – including Open Studios.  All went moderately well.  No need to discuss now when so tired. The important thing, here, is, it’s over and once I rest up and put some things away, I will be able move on and in and deeper toward some things much more satisfying than production and sales.  Thank you local viewers and buyers!!!!!

quilts-into-bags

More on this after the show this weekend, but how fun was it to turn two quilts into this messenger bag:

These quilts always kind of reminded me of oversized potholders, anyway.   It’s two same-sized quilts, one with a pocket sewn on the inside, with a single strip of fabric stitched as the sides/bottom/strap.  Side two:
Also finished these bags today:
Now everything needs priced before tomorrow!

Will show you the lovely Japanese bag that was the inspiration for the construction method on the messenger bag next week.

playing with dolls

Dressing a doll can be a good place to gather ideas about garments.  The blue batik ‘shirt’, here, works off of the garment-as-a-series-of-rectangles idea (recently explored in Jude Hill‘s Boro class).  I learned that just by folding the ‘sleeve’ rectangle base in as a triangle, you achieve a class sleeve outline… simple, I know, but it is different to read, study, than to tuck, finger press, and stitch! (That’s Athena by the way, and I think I will give her a weapon or two).

This dreamer wears a fun assortment of charms, including a pewter, retro airplane.  I love that plane.  But, really? It’s her pigtails that make me smile. They are tied up with plastic-coated telephone wire. Remember hunting for remnants of that as a kid and making bracelets and rings?!  If she had arms, I’d give her a typewriter, just to keep the retro business going.  The blue floral linen was a dress, probably from the 60′s.

Here the garment idea is the basic triangle-shawl.  It is hard to get more simple than that!  This pristine doily came out of my vintage linens drawer.

Now the next doll is naked.

Every once in awhile, batik offers its swirls to the imagination in a very particular way.  Years ago, I saw a penis in the swirls of a yellow batik, and gave a two fiber-collaged primitive-styled men well endowed figures (here’s one below – not a great picture, but you get the idea).

On the new green female, however, the swirls suggested breasts… and as I wrapped red thread around the waist, it wanted to go up and circle one of the breasts, which turned into a meditation on mastectomy, which a good friend of mine’s sister had had just days prior (did you know that this is a seven hour operation?!!)

This started as the idea that playing with dolls can help one learn about garment construction, and turned into something quite else.

finishing, finishing

piles of fabric everywhere!

Still not used to effect of embroidery on these things.  Not sure I like.

But I love this hand-dyed thread from India.

Made this little thread sketch over the weekend, using colored pencils to make the floral design pop a little more.  Having just heard that Maurice Sendak died, I would love to make a sketch of one of his characters.

This apron was supposed to be for Newton Open Studios, but two things: one, I pricked myself and left a drop of blood on the trim and two, the edging looks too much like sheets from JC Penney.  I AM employing a green sheet there for the edge, but I expected it to look a little transformed.  Instead, my maroon trim made it look MORE like a sheet!

There are several pouches in various stages of finish.

Back to work!!

wrapped in lace and silk

The dolls are getting draped around here, too.

This will be a Writer’s Totem… I plan to tuck a long feather into the bundle, representing the quill.

The face is Charlotte Bronte.