Still Sewing

Still Sewing

Well, my sewing stuff – and the mess – is still out! I realised I was running out of offcuts, so decided to make some more. I suppose technically they’re not offcuts if I make them with the intention of cutting into strips, but you know what I mean 🙂 I made a few different coloured nuno felt pieces:

I loved the variety of textures I got from using different fabrics on the orange piece:

The red piece was made with all silk pieces:

This is a corner of the red piece with sunlight on it:

I think this is my favourite close up, from the yellow piece I made, and a strip from a viscose scarf:

Before I got too attached to the pieces, I cut them all up into strips:

I made a mistake with some of them, because some pieces weren’t very wide. I should have left them ‘whole’ instead of cutting the strip in half like I did the others. I started with the red and orange strips, and matched up some pieces, it turned out some of the purple strips worked well too so I used some of them. I made them into a passport style shoulder bag. I made this side as the front:

I made the back to match, but different enough that it can be reversed for a different look:

It’s not very easy to see, but I finished the bottom of the strap off with some wooden beads.

20 thoughts on “Still Sewing

  1. Lovely colours and textures Zed. I would love a bag like that. One question – where did you get your sunlight from?!!

    1. Thanks, Tracey 🙂
      I think it was the only hour or so of Sunlight all week, and it waited until I wanted to take photos!

  2. I would be happy to just sit and gaze upon the scrummy pile of strips!
    I love the bag. It’s so pretty – both sides.
    I guess the stitching of the strips together makes for a satisfyingly firm bag too?

    1. Thanks Lyn 🙂
      Yeah, the stitching really does make them firm. I sew the strips onto some thin craft felt for bags, to make them extra sturdy. I use lighter very thin fabric for book covers though, so they’re still flexible when I add a lining to hide the stitching.

  3. A rainbow on a bag. Very nice Zed. The bag looks sturdy. It’s a good idea to reinforce it in the inside. I would have had a lot of trouble cutting those strips. They all looked nice together. Perhaps next time make a bigger bag with the bigger pieces. The beads are a nice finish.

    1. Thanks, Marilyn 🙂
      I have made a few bigger bags actually, I thought I’d make a variety of sizes and styles depending on the sizes of the pieces, so next time I make pieces I probably will save a few of the bigger ones for bigger bags.

  4. Beautiful color combo on your bag. I was wondering how you sewed them together to have them sturdy enough… that’s a good idea to use craft felt–it’s definitely hard enough to stay smooth inside the bag and give it strength. I would have probably tried to do a fabric lining to reinforce the handmade felt and would have ended up frustrated, trying to make seams and fit it inside properly. This is a much better idea and you don’t have to worry about frayed seams! 🙂

    1. Thanks, Terri 🙂
      I did think about sewing seams and making them all neat, but yeah, it seemed like a LOT of work and fiddly! I’ve used fabric lining on a couple of bags/cases, but still used the zig-zg stitch on the outside. It’s almost like a science working out how thick the felt+lining needs to be depending on the use for the bag/case/purse etc!

  5. Very nice bag, Zed. As usual, you managed to make a perfect colour combination. And you still have more strips to make more bags.

    1. Thanks, Nada 🙂
      Yeah, and already I’ve had enough smaller offcuts for a small notebook cover!

    1. Thanks, Cheryl 🙂
      It’s definitely a lot easier to cut up when that’s the plan, than when it’s a nice full piece of nuno made with just one fabric!

    1. Thanks, Ruth 🙂
      My favourite out of all of them is the red silk piece, with flowers and triangles, Jill sent some sari silk samples over, and I’d buy yards of that if I could!

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