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Trying To Be Productive

Trying To Be Productive

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I’ve got a craft fair in a couple of weeks, so I’ve been trying to make some new things to take with me. I can never predict what might be popular or sell, so I’ve given up trying to 2nd guess, it just leads to a lot of stock piling up and a lot of disappointment. Instead I decided to concentrate on things I enjoy … with the exception of felted soaps, I’m going to give in and make some, they’re guaranteed to generate interest! Sounds like a plan, ay? Except we’ve been having the most ridiculous heatwave here, so I’ve managed to do very little, unless you count sweating and eating ice cream as being productive 🙂 I did manage to make one new piece of felt though, a ‘seascape’:

And I even managed to turn it into an A5 book cover. This is the front:

And the back:

I had a look through my already made felt pieces and found one from a challenge which I thought would make a nice cover, so I cut that out:

I’ve got both ends sewn so far, so I’ll show it all sewn up next time. I also got as far as choosing some pieces to cut up for piecing together, probably also for book covers, though maybe bags since I bought a load of zips with that intention. I just hate sewing zips!

Any tips for secure closures which doesn’t involve zips or magnets? I’m leaning towards lobster clasps and D rings at the moment. I like delrin clips but making the felt straps is so time consuming.

Blues and Greens

Blues and Greens

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These are the blue and green nuno pieces I made using fabric strips a few weeks ago. I tried to include a wide range of colours as well as various fabrics.
This one was a mix of blue, purple, green and turquoise:

The two viscose pieces either side of this silk chiffon have great ripples, the chiffon just sunk in. It’s one of my favourite fabrics, from a dress I got at a charity shop and didn’t realise was silk until I used it and saw how it sunk in, and went back to search for the label.

I’ve noticed that some fabrics attach better if they are in the middle or aren’t too close to the edge. I’ll try a sample with just this thick blue scarf piece at the end, and see if it attaches better not so close to the edge.

All the fabrics I used on this piece were silk or strongly suspected of being silk:

It looks much better close up, and on an angle – the lighter pieces seem to reflect light a lot:

You can see the textures better too:

I think I made the strips a bit too long on the green piece, a few of these didn’t attach well along the edge, even though the rest of the pieces did. I usually try to make sure I work on edges, so I don’t know why it happens sometimes:

Slightly closer:

I did think I’d probably make one mostly blue bag and one mostly green, but once the strips were cut up and moved around to see which others they looked best with, it didn’t work out like that! Also, being conscious of how bags wear more on the back, picking pieces to work best there also influenced the final outcome. These are the two panels I made for my next bag:

I have to remember to take photos of it sewn up for next time!