Bags bags bags

This week I have mainly been making bags... (I feel a little like that character from the Fast Show played by Paul Whitehouse: 'this week I shall mainly be eating....carrots)

My first one I actually started ages ago - one of my sisters gave me some funky wool for Christmas or a birthday or something and I decided to knit a bag with it... It took forever as the wool was fairly hard to knit with and kept getting tangled in knots. When it came to the straps I decided enough was enough and crocheted with some turquoise wool I've had since we went to Argentina. The whole bag is lined and nearly finished... but I think it needs some big wooden buttons on the fold over flap and have had absolutely no success in finding any recently. If you know anywhere in London (preferably in the East End / Islington area) where I could find some, please let me know!!

The Crazy-Wool bag...

I bought a lino cutter a week ago so that I could design a stamp for my jewellery boxes. Cut a design I was pretty happy with, spent ages on it and printed... only to realise I had forgotten that you need to reverse it on the cut because, of course, it is the reflection you see when you print. So my C and T for Creating Trouble were back to front! Anyway, I decided to do something a little more cutesy with my lino for my next project. As it's Easter quite soon, I figured rabbits would be appropriate... so an Easter Tote Bag was conceived. Did a quick sketch or two and then got straight into cutting up some lino bunnies. 

I have printed onto fabric before - but the last time I did it was for my Art GCSE exam piece and I couldn't remember what medium I needed to use. It took a few phone calls to my arty friends, a few tweets and a conversation in my local art shop before I had what I was looking for. Apparently acrylic is OK as long as you mix it with a medium for fabrics. 

The Bunny Bag is actually up-cycled - an old duvet cover washed, ironed and  lined with interfacing and then another layer put inside. I'm feeling very virtuous with all this up-cycling I'm doing at the moment... 

Anyway, here is bag number two - lino print with fabric pen detail. 

Lino Bunny Bag

And my third project? I am NEVER going near denim bags again... I still had some of that old pair of jeans left over from my pencil case project and thought it would be kind of cool to make a bag using the back pockets as features. In fact when I cut the pencil case I was quite careful not to use that part as I already had the idea of a denim handbag. Before I started I actually went to the trouble of getting some denim needles for my sewing machine... but I still broke one trying to go over too many hems. Actually that wasn't the worst thing. I used a press fastener at the top so that you can close the bag - but while I was hammering it in place, I actually managed to hammer the tip of my thumb. OWWWWWW!!! I would have given up at that point but decided I wouldn't be beaten by a bit of denim so I finished it... amid much 'grrrrs' and 'I HATE denim' and some things that probably shouldn't be repeated on my blog! 

Owww! The painful denim bag

So there you have it - my weekly projects. I'm off to go and print some more lino bunnies...