Though I haven’t posted about it in a while, I am still stitching—on something very unplanned and unexpected.
A few weeks ago I saw one of the care center receptionists with whom I’ve had many conversations. When I saw the top Tangie was wearing, I exclaimed that I loved it. She said, “Oh, this is so old. I don’t even like it any more.” But I loved the colors. “When you’re done with it, don’t throw it away. Give it to me. I don’t want to wear it; I want to use the fabric to make something.”
“You may have it sooner than you think,” she replied. I thought we were just bantering, but then I thought, what if she’s serious?
Well, the next week, as I passed the front desk, Tangie handed me a bag with the top in it. OMG, she’s given it to me. Now what do I do?
I hung the top where I’d had Josh’s jacket hanging, so that I could see it all the time and hope for an idea to come. Here I show the back of it with some fabrics I was considering using with it. Unfortunately, I inadvertently deleted permanently the original shots I took of the front and back of the top. If you look closely, you can see sequins and beads on the ends of the sleeves and on the shoulder. The front had a yoke of these clear glass beads on silver sequins.
The idea that came to me was to make a small shoulder bag of crazy patchwork. The first thing I did was to construct a mockup using a bit of an old bed-sheet to make sure I could do it.
It’s just two rectangles, the back longer than the front so it can flap over it, and stitching over the bottom to make square corners. It will be lined.
Then I began sketching some patchwork designs as thumbnails.
After settling on one, I enlarged it on the computer and used it to make patterns for patches. This is for the front and back
and this is for the part of the back that will be the closing flap.
Next, because the fabric, though pure cotton, is thin and rippled, I fused part of it to fine Pellon interfacing. Then I traced the designs onto my foundation (old bedsheet remnant) using the light table. I also prepared stretcher bar frames.
Not necessary, but I like a firm foundation to work on when stitching, especially with beads. This goes back to the course I took in silk and metal thread embroidery where I learned to frame the piece for working.
I’ve repeatedly acknowledged my ineptness at piecing. Although I carefully pinned the paper patterns on to the fabric and cut leaving plenty of seam allowance, as I began to put the patches in place on the foundation, I wasn’t at all pleased with the effect, and machine stitching and flipping made it worse.
I wasn’t getting the parts of the fabric design and the direction of that design as I wanted them to combine.
In the end, I discarded a lot of patches and cut new ones.
I cut them one at a time, making a paper pattern for each and pinning it in place before choosing the part of the fabric from which to cut the next one.
My worktable at this stage:
I returned to my method of last resort–hand basting the patches. Here’s the pinned and partly hand-basted front.
As you can see, I kept some of the beads-on-sequins. To do that, I had to secure them with my own stitching. Talk about fiddly work!
Here are some of the beads and sequins I had to remove to allow for seams. This took forever.
Both sides stretched and ready for seam treatments.
I was finally able to think about how to embellish the seams. I did that first on paper—a scan of the work on which I sketched some ideas.
Eventually I actually got to the fun part. Here’s the front of the bag with all the seams embellished. I don’t know whether this is enough, or whether I’ll add to these seams.
For now, I’m working on the back. I’m re-stitching all the beads-and-sequins to make sure none come off. As usual, this is slow going. It takes me so long to finish any project. So much unnecessary work because I don’t have the skills and experience to do what I want to do. I wish I were more productive.
That will be most wonderful, nice to see that you have got your creativity flowing. I want to see it ready.
Fantastic fabric!! I can see why you wanted it:-) One woman’s trash………. If you can enjoy the process, and not worry abt the end product getting done at a certain time. It’s hard, I know.
I have one friend who keeps a 7-year waiting list of folks who want a piece of her needlepoint!!!
this bag will be fab! very smart keeping some of the beading.
JoWynn you’re a skilled stitcher and artist…you have quickly turned an unwanted item into some both decorative and useful.
Love how the stitches coordinate and bring out the pattern in the original fabric. Beautiful.
Jill