Second Botanicals Bag-from-jeans

 The second bag-from-jeans is also based on designs from Alice Makabe's Beautiful Botanicals Embroidery.  The first side is a simplified version of her 'night in the forest' on page 15. I removed all plants except the trees, and added a moon and two bats. It isn't as impactful as the first bag, but I am very happy with the effect. I've used perle 5 thread throughout.  I had just enough of the variegated thread for the leaves.

I began on the face of the owl with silk thread. I had a hank of silk that contained a range of colours I thought might work the whole owl, but I wasn't happy with the performance of the silk , so swapped back to perle 5 cotton in two shades of grey for the rest of the body. Heavier thread works better on this denim.

On the back I worked a version of the circular floral motif on page 12., where it is a small circular wreath repeated around 4 sides of a cloth. I enlarged it a little and worked it in the centre, Then enlarged and repeated it twice to form a series of concentric (more or less) circles, using a silvery-grey Perle 5 in deference to the colours in the owl.  Again, it blends rather than standing out as the white does on bag 1.

A remnant of upholstery fabric I bought from Nicola Jarvis 3-4 years ago makes quite a good lining.

I had to take great care stitching it into the bag. Because of a tear in the lining fabric, I had to juggle a little. The lining is non-stretch and it was a tight fit at the top - but I got there.

It has worked. The first bag certainly makes more of an impact, but this has charm, I think  

I am now working on the third bag - made from the back of the jeans with pockets, where smaller individual motifs are a reasonable fit with the more broken up spaces. Quite different.

Sari bag therapy - resolution busting.

On 7 January at a Guild gathering, I talked about my use of drawstring bags for gift wrapping and the bags I had just made from a kimono jacket. In the past I have bought 'sari scraps' to make bags, but as my old source of sari scraps has dried up, I proclaimed to the Guild group that I was resolved in future to use up my fabric stash in replenishing my bag supply. My quick online search for 'sari scraps' had returned only resellers in Australia or USA and I certainly have a good supply of cotton and other fabric I could use up.


When I got home I did a final search online, this time using 'remnants' instead of 'scraps'. Before I went to bed I had ordered three bundles of sari remnants from The Purana Bazaar. Two days later they had arrived. 25 substantial pieces of vintage sari.

Such deliciousness!

cut out bags

On 11 January I cut out 85 bags - large to medium size and stitched up 10 of them before going away for a few days on 12 January.



On my return, I stitched up 10-20 bags each day. I am using a stool to sit at my machine - good for my back, but hard, so I limit myself to about an hour at a time.  Once stitched, I have a box of ribbons and other cords to sort through to find the right draw-string. Most of these bags are made from a single piece folded, so I fold over a hem at the top and undo the side-seam to insert the cord. These have only one drawstring. If the bag has two side seams I use two cords.  This means I can often knot the ends together rather than adding a stop.



Some pieces need a repair. The silk had split on this piece, so I added a piece of bias binding to hold the cord.







I used the cord and ribbon I had - but also bought a new supply as I was running too low to complete this batch.



When the cords are in, I dive into my collection of buttons, single earrings, broken jewellery and beads to find suitable cord stops. It's satisfying work and a lot of fun. I also repaired a few bags that have have come back to me in the recycling process.














These are a few of the beads, buttons and bits that I used to stop the drawstrings disappearing into the hems.
















I added a few extra bags from stash fabric.  With the Japanese kimono fabric , the sari remnants , stash bits and ribbon purchase, I made 128 bags at a cost of about $A1.06 per bag. I now have a goodly supply for the next year or two!

I love recycling!

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Japanese bag therapy

This is, I notice, my 515th blog post. Seems apt that it should be published on 21/01/20.

Christmas made a serious dint in my supply of the large drawstring bags I use in place of wrapping paper. I still had a good supply of small bags but decided I needed to make more medium and large bags. My whole family uses and recycles these bags so I like to keep the supply going - and the making of them is, for me, enjoyable, even therapeutic.

In the past I have purchased vintage sari and kimono pieces for these bags. This time I unpicked a kimono jacket given to me by my daughter. It took a bit of unpicking as it turned out to be made from a huge length of obi-width fabric, folded and tacked ingeniously - as kimonos usually are. Regretably, I didn't take photos of the unpicking and ingenious folds.


The jacket was fully lined. In some cases I used the lining as a lining for a bag. In other cases I made a bag of the lining and a bag of the outer layer.

It made 23 bags of very varied size, from very small to fairly large. I like to let the fabric dictate the shape and size. Flaws and holes get incorporated. I kept as much of the original hand-stitching as I could. Much of it was stitched using two rows of running stitch.

After stitching the bags, I spent a relaxing evening finding matching ribbon or drawstrings of various cords, such as shoelaces.  A further hour or so was spent finding stoppers for the cords, using the remains of old earrings, buttons or, in some cases, knots.

I could have done with some more red ribbon, but made do with the strong pink I had at hand.

A very satisfactory result for a few hours work.

I really love recycling!

Extending the use of one-use containers - another mad idea.

South Australia has been a pioneer in legislation to encourage recycling. We have had deposits on all drink bottles for 25 years now and on single-use supermarket bags for more than a decade.

Recently, however, I became aware of how much rubbish I generate. I tried composting my food waste on my balcony - and killed several plants before realising that it takes months, not weeks, to make compost, too long for my balcony system.

I then turned to the plastic packaging I put into the recycle bin, and into the ordinary rubbish collection each week. While some of this (such as meat trays) I can eliminate by how I shop, some, like berry containers, are not so easily eliminated (except perhaps for a few weeks at this time of the year when I could go to local berry farms and pick my own!).

I go through at least two punnets of strawberries and one of blueberries each week. I decided to see if I could find a way to reuse the containers.

I began with the idea of embroidering them - tracing a pattern on them, making holes along the pattern and stitching between the holes. I also tried using the holes around the sides of the containers to thread ribbon through and weave it. The coverage wasn't good enough - and was unlikely to be better using embroidery thread.

I decided to try a kind of fabric decoupage. I got out my bin of small fabric pieces, a pot of glue and some lacquer.

It's a relatively messy business.



The olive oil spread container that I happened to be ready to throw away proved an easy beginning.

It held its shape and looked OK.

Then for the strawberry container.

It wasn't easy to get full coverage, and I needed to be careful not to cover the edge that clips the top to the bottom.






But it more or less worked.



The blueberry container worked in about the same measure. With the help of a bit of lace, I got a bit closer to the edges in coverage.

All in all, three or four of these I could find a use for. Three or four a week is too much of an ask. These will need to go into our apartment block recycling bin and hopefully be usefully recycled. I also note that a couple of supermarkets are beginning to use more readily recycled containers - not yet, however, for berries.

Then, in November, a couple of things happened. I discovered that two supermarket chains in Adelaide collect soft plastics for recycling. This includes cling wrap, chip packets, linings of cereal boxes, bubblewrap and postbags. Then Adelaide City Council announced a composting scheme. Our strata opted in immediately. I now have a composting bin and biodegradable bin liners that I empty into a collection bin near my carpark. Between these two initiatives, I have had no rubbish go into landfill in the five weeks it has been operating.

I'm glad I satisfied my curiosity and had a go at covering these containers - but still more glad that local recycling advances have overtaken me. I can recycle the containers without feeling the need to reuse them!

I am posting this before the end of the year - mad idea behind me! More conventional embroidery projects in 2019.

Bag therapy

As I was searching for some pieces of silk to use as lining for my pearl cases recently, I came across some of the sari scraps and Japanese kimono fabrics I did not realise I still had. I purchased these several years ago to make drawstring bags which I use to wrap presents rather than using paper. When I was working I would occasionally take a leave day to stitch the bags - my bag therapy.

Many of the fabrics came from Fabricana's Etsy Shop, and some from a variety of Japan shops. My store of bags for presents was nearly exhausted and I had checked Fabricana's shop a few times but she has been on a break for a couple of years. I was therefore excited to find that I still had a supply of fabric - and set out to use it up!






I try to work with the fabrics as they are, maximising the amount I can use. If they are sheer, as many sari fabrics are, I line them with an appropriate lining - I have a supply of satin linings purchased from a dressmaking friend who gave up her business to study.

Many of the Japanese kimono fabrics have been mended by hand. and I try to incorporate this work into the bag.

It is important, I think, to see the care and economy that went into these recycled fabrics and to maintain the tradition.

I also try to preserve the carefully folded seams and the running stitch used to keep them in place.













Once the bags are stitched, I find ribbon or cord for the drawstring, and buttons or odd earrings to attach to the ribbon ends so they don't disappear into the casing.






















It's a lot of fun finding the right ribbon and fixing.

It's a good way to use up buttons









or shells






























or earrings;

even ribbons from the Vergani Christmas Panetonne!

The bags vary from quite small,













to quite large and everything in between.


















I need a variety of sizes for a variety of presents.






Now the confession.

While checking out whether Fabricana was back in business, I came across RibbonsandSilk -  selling fat quarters from old saris from Byron Bay. To check them out, I bought three packs, which yielded 14 bags. my drive to recycle overrode my desire for economy! The pieces are more regular than Fabricana's were, and most had been nicely edged with an overlocker.

The tally? At last count it was 104 bags. This should get me through at least two or three years of gift giving. Think what I save on wrapping paper!