Baggy Lady

Hello. Looking through my posts it has been a looooooooooooooong time that I did a show and tell of something I have made. So ta da here is something that I have never made before, a bag.

I bought a lovely bag before I started my costume course and it was my faithful friend all through those two years. But alas it was looking a tad scruffy and the zips had broken and it made me sad. Yet I could not throw it out, instead I gave it a make over!

I downloaded the Anna Boho Bag pattern from Burdastyle and taped it all together. I had some fabric from a sale in a textile shop in Welly, called D Alexander (which is were I got my material for my major work corset, amazing textile shop!) and I thought they would work well together.

Close up of the old bag fabric, can you see why I did not want to put it in the landfill to un-perish, so pretty.

I cut out the largest section and found that it was too small for the base of the Anna Boho Bag pattern. I decided to just put a big ole box pleat in the middle of the floral material I was using as the bags main body.

I cut up my ole bag and was able to reuse the strap and 95% of the existing outer material, yay! I used an old plastic folder to reinforce the bag bottom and some waterproof material from my stash for the lining.

I then I sewed it all up, the instructions are ok and I found it that it went together really easily. Because I had my own strap I did not make the fabric one from the pattern and made loops instead.

I used extra strong thread that you use to sew jeans material with. I then made the draw string tops using thick chunky cord and toggles from my stash.

My old bag material is used on the base of the bag and the corners, I think it complements the material I used well. You can see my box pleat in the middle.

I love the pockets on this bag, very handy for mobile and keys without endless rummaging!

Here is the final result in all its glory!

I did add the tassels from the pattern but they just looked a bit naff as my ole bag material is plastic vinyl erm they looked cheap so I took them off. I love it! The inside does not have any pockets but the pockets on the outside are great for me as I tend to lose small things in bags no matter how good the pockets are inside the bag.

I rated this pattern and one of my friends already wants one!

xx

What I did next...

Hello... well, well, well Costume Showcase has been and gone. It was a really great night. I hope to get quite a few photos to show you what treats where there to be found. Our class was really happy and that's what you want to be... not to mention have a good ole boogie after the main event :)

I have promised a lot from previous blogs namely along the lines off 'i will show you this when I have finished' and now I may find the odd spare hour to get some of those things on the move. In the meantime I have been asked to see the hats. So I thought yup I could post just pictures but how about if I did a 'mini series'. Having meet some of you now and knowing that if you are either/all, crafty, arty, technical and are prone to day dreaming a little you like to know how the end result became the end result.

So I thought I will show the pictures of all finished three hats... all at once... but then my next few blogs will have pictures of my visual diary for each, development images and written accounts of my thought processes. I will make these available in PDF downloads.

So here are the finished hats.

This weekend was also really great. Karen (of lightdress fame, amongst other things) and I had a day out on Saturday. Its been so long since I had a day to wander around and do exactly what I liked (just like Audrey in Roman Holiday).

First we went around town from Aro Valley towards Te Papa. We stumbled into a few places along the way, namely Swonderful. WOw! I love their clothing label Papercup. Elegant, contemporary and fun. Then on to Te Papa to see the interactive architecture, I loved the umbrella digital light reactive flowers and the reactive music table. Then we walked around Oriental Parade, got gelato, and some great photos.

Then I went to see the film Moon with my guy. I really loved it, the music is amazing, fantastic acting, it looks stunning and oh gosh I wished I had designed the poster, a touch of Bridget Riley.



Anyways, I'd better go I have some hat blog entries to get organised!

xx