Japanese Pouch Two

The pouch I made from David Pike's Japanese textile piece has been so useful, I decided to make another of the pieces up in a similar way. This piece wasn't quite square so I had to trim a strip from one side. I've set that aside to do something else with.

I used the same bottle green dupion silk to frame and line the piece, sandwiching some wadding between. As I hand-quilted around the flower shapes, I decided to pad them further to give a raised effect. This looks great, but it did give me uneven effects on the rest of the fabric, so when I quilted through the stems I got more ruching in some areas than others.

I decided to embroider the green edges with the  Papillon black/gold metallic thread  left over from Kris's Bag - it was easy to work with and very effective, especially in stem stitch, so I used it to outline stems and leaves similar to those in the gold fabric.

I edged the gold panel in black ribbon - tried green and rejected it.

The piece became highly malleable. I could shape it like a piece of heavy foil. I imagine this is a combination of the gold threads in the panel, the gold stitching and the dupion, which has a slightly stiff texture.

I ladder-stitched the sides into a pouch shape and decided against embroidering to cover the edges. Instead, I extended the leaf and stem pattern across the whole green area, partially covering the edges.

I really like the effect.

For the little triangular insert, I embroidered the shape of the flower (chrysanthemum?).

I stitched in a magnetic clip - the strongest one I had. It is still imperfect through a couple of layers of fabric, but the bag is so malleable the flap tends to stay where it is put.



I spent quite a bit of time trying various edging around the flap. I nearly went with a cylindrical gold webby one, but in the end decided I rather like it as it is. I can change my mind about that later if it doesn't seem to be wearing well.

Because it is so bendy, it is easy to close it to fit my iPad more closely than the earlier one I made. I even rather like the uneven effect on the back. It is proving perfect for the job.I'll use the earlier one for larger things.







I still have one more piece of this cloth. I am now thinking I might be brave enough to make another pouch, this time quilting it on the machine. It has been great fun playing with this fabric.