Tuesday 16 September 2008

Wedding Accessorise Finished at Last!

Hi all! Gosh it's been a busy few days, but I'm not going to whinge about work etc on my lovely blog. No, blog land is somewhere to escape to, where everything is bright and colourful, shimmery and shiny. Bloggers are kind and caring, funny and inspiring, creative and crafty. And I love it here!

To bring you up to date on my preparations for the wedding we've been invited to at the weekend... I have a floaty dress, I have a wrap, I have shoes, and now... TA,DAA!!!

I have a bag too.

I spent Sunday making myself a bag to match my wedding outfit. It was a bit of a suck it and see creation. I had a rough idea of what shape and style I wanted the bag to be, but no pattern. So it was pretty much stick a pin in there and stitch that bit to there and see what happens.

I made a few simple sketches in my sketch book. I find it really useful to have a sketch book, we were encouraged to keep one at college, somewhere to empty your head! Although right from being a teenager I've always had a book where I would doodle and roughly plan the items that I made. It's quite nice to look back through it and remember all the things that I've made over the years, as quite often items are made for someone else or given away. It's also good to look back with a critical eye, and think, well actually that was quite good, or actually I should have made that this way instead. All in all, sketchbooks can only be a good thing, there's never a wrong doodle, or an incorrect sketch, after all it's a private place for me to empty my creative thoughts and ideas!


The bag is made from silk dupion that I dyed myself (as you've seen in the last few posts!) I machine embroidered the silk onto a stiff iron on interfacing, to create a rigid top that the rest of the bag would hopefully drape down from, in scrunchy crinkles. I also needed to attach a magnetic fastener. (unfortunately I didn't take a photo of that, cos I was too busy swearing at it!)

This is the lining, made from an old curtain sample I picked up in a charity shop years ago. I needed something quite firm and strong on the inside as the silk is quite soft and floppy, and I need it to hold my camera and mobile phone. I didn't want it to look like a wet sock with a brick in it!

Here's the lining with the silk outer fabric stitched on to it. I got the silk to crinkle by wetting it and then twisting it up and leaving it to dry. The silk hangs down about an inch longer than the lining at the bottom. (to avoid the brick in a wet sock effect!)

The hardest part was trying to fit the crinkly gathered up part into the embroidered top piece. (There were a few choice words, I can tell you.) At the same time trying to insert both ends of a little secret wrist strap (for those moments when you need to carry your bag, a wine glass and shake hands with someone)

The finishing touch is a large green fabric flower that I cut off a hair band and stitched onto a brooch back, and then pinned to the front of the bag.

All in all, I'm rather pleased with the finished ensemble, and I would just like to say thank you for all the encouragement you've given me with the fabric dyeing over the last few posts. It makes all the difference having a little bit of feed back from some crafty friends. Especially when you're short of time and you don't really know what you're doing!!!

13 comments:

French Knots said...

The bag is lovely and the perfect complement to the shoes and dress.Hope we get to see a picture of you all dolled up!

Anonymous said...

BONJOUR

COMME VOUS AVEZ DE BELLES IDEES
ET SI BIEN MISES EN APPLICATION
VOUS ME DONNEZ TANT D IDEES A FAIRE LES CHOSES PAR MOI MEME

C EST UN VRAI PLAISIR DE VENIR SE PROMENER SUR VOTRE SITE

BELLE JOURNEE

MARIE CLAUDE

Sal said...

I adore the colours! ;-)

Indigo Blue said...

Hi,
The bag is an excellent additon to the shoes. I too keep sketch books as I used to at college. I do not always make what I put in it but do sometimes come back to the ideas at later date.Lovely colour combination.

Lesley's Creations said...

Hi Fi,Hope you are well? You've done it again. The bag is gorgeous and puts the icing on the cake for the whole outfit. Can't wait to see you all togged up. And maybe a sneaked picture of the bride. Have a great time. Hope its not tooooo windy up there with all those kilts! Tee Hee.
hugs lesley. x

Alchamillamolly said...

Hi because I am thick I left the answers to your questions on a comment below yours on my own blog! Forgot Barkers also have a bathroom bit but its on the High Street not at the furniture store where I directed you to in the other comment.

Tinyholder said...

You clever lady! I love the bag! :-)

This Vintage Life... said...

Wow, that's incredible...clever you! Worth all the swearing in the end...
Deb x

Anonymous said...

Bloody hell!! That is fantastic! You're a designer genius.

Sorry for the gushing - and that bit of swearing and all the exclamation marks, but I couldn't help myself.

Very well done!

Janster said...

I am looking for a crochet cat pattern and found yours. I really like it and will use it for my project. Then I saw this purse. WOW I joined because of this purse. It is perfect. Good job.

Kay said...

Lovely.

alessandra marsiaj said...

FAVOLOSAAAAAA
perfect

Valerie said...

Hi because I am thick I left the answers to your questions on a comment below yours on my own blog! Forgot Barkers also have a bathroom bit but its on the High Street not at the furniture store where I directed you to in the other comment.