BUSINESS ROMANCE

The hits just keep coming. I'm still creating here in Oak Cloister Studio and my latest creation took on a surprising twist in the process.  I made a basic ploomer (bloomers + purse = ploomer). I used a pair of slacks from a man's suit.  Once I sewed up the basic ploomer from the slacks, it was blah. I tried using a tie as a belt with a decorative flair, but it didn't do anything for me. So I said, "What if ...  So many things happen when I get into What-If mode. So many happy things. So, I What-Iffed my way to some gorgeous crocheted lace. Beyond gorgeous. It's stunning. I rescued it from a linen piece that was beyond repair, horribly stained. The crochet trim was, however, in wonderful shape.  And here's the result. I even constructed a little flower to top it all off. I'm loving it.

STILL ROLLING ALONG

I'm still creating. Tried something really different this time. Mixed media of sorts. Man's suit coat + decorative handkerchief + another man's suit + thread painting + raw edges + geometric = the new bag.










Of course it includes lots of pockets on the inside. Also, a wide tab Velcro closure.

JACKET UPCYCLE PART 2

Remember the bag from yesterday, navy and white check, quilted, made from a homemade jacket? Today I made another bag from it, from the back of the jacket.

As before, I requilted the fabric. This time I opted to decorate it myself with lacy flowers and red buttons, both of which (I must confess) came from my recent trash-pickin' adventure. I lined it in red and used a red print for the pockets. Inserted a zipper closure. I'm happy with the finished product.

ON A ROLL

Voila! Another bag. I'm on fire.

I saw a jacket, homemade. And that's a compliment to its creator. Very well constructed. Beautiful workmanship.  With some really cool flowers on it. I originally planned to remove the flowers and use them on something else, but they were constructed on the garment itself. Not constructed and added to it. So, I used the front of the jacket to make my bag.  I had to do a little requilting on it as it was quilted to the batting with no backing.  I didn't want to run it through my machine that way, fearing the batting would catch in the feed dogs, so I added a backing and requilted it. It took a little bit of time, but I figure it prevented a lot of aggravation, so all's well.

I lined it with a floral print with four roomy pockets. Gotta have those pockets. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

UNO, DOS, TRES

Been busy again. Have completed three bags.

First: another Zippidy Doo Da bag, this time using pastel colored zippers. I have to admit that this is my favorite. It's time consuming to  make, but so worth it. It's really a fun, good-looking bag. Lots of pockets inside.



Next, my go at a little romance. I used vintage doilies, lace and button, along with a flower I made from a man's suit coat. I then built around the motif to make the bag a reasonable size. I do believe I have succeeded in the romance department with this one, plus it's practical with four roomy pockets inside. Gotta love it. Here's a close-up of the insert.



Finally a quickie tote. I found a wonderful table runner that begged to go home with me and morph into a Yayamade bag. I had to do it. It was only a dollar. It's a basic lined tote with a hint of patriotism, only with a pink tinge. Pink, white and blue. How fun is that!

SALVAGING SELVAGE

Front

I've been saving my selvages for sometime now, intent on creating a bag from them. I finally did it last week. Opted for a simple tote bag. Turned out well, for my first shot at selvage-fabric-making. It's time consuming, building the selvage fabric, but I have to admit that it was fun to do.

Back

I've seen lots of things made from selvage on the internet. They look a lot more uniform. Probably because they use the same type of fabric for their quilting fabrics, so their selvages are similar. Since I use so many different types of fabrics, mostly rescued from local thrift shops, my selvages were all over the place in terms of style, width, and what was printed on them. Also, since I use smaller pieces in my bag designs, I had to piece some selvages together to make them long enough, and selvages from different sides of the fabric don't always match in width, or is that depth.

Anyway, I pushed on and am happy with the results. Here's pics of front and back. The lining is from the same striped fabric as the tote's bottom and handles.

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! AND OOPS!

It's here! The August edition of GREENCRAFT MAGAZINE, it's here. The one that my VesTote was to be featured in, in the Gallery section.  I've been so excited about this. I came home yesterday whispering, "Let it be here. Let it be here." And, lo and behold, it was.

I flipped to the back of the magazine for the gallery section, starting from the back. And turned page after page until, there it was. On the FIRST page of the Gallery section. FIRST page. A FULL page. FULL page. The photo is fantastic. The write-up mine, what I sent in, but in third person.  Yaaaaaay! And then . . .

Murphy's Law strikes again.  For the contact info it says,

KC Miller * Fort Collins, CO

Email: cheryl@croppingcooks.com

Website: croppingcooks.com

From huge excitement to huge disappointment in milliseconds. I knew any chance of getting anyone to my Artfire shop from seeing my VesTote in the magazine is all but nil. And, of course, I'd told everyone I knew about it, so embarrassed, too.

But the good news -- well, the next good news, because making the magazine in the first place and getting a full page and the first page of the Gallery section was pretty good news -- I'll get another go at it because -- drum roll, please --

My Tee Leaves (bookmarks) will be in the From the Bin section of the November issue of GREENCRAFT MAGAZINE.  Keep your fingers crossed. Say prayers. That this time it'll all be correct.

To cover my bases, I emailed cheryl@croppingcooks.com and bcc'd the editor at the magazine so she'd know what happened. I explained to Cheryl (whose article and creations are awesome, by the way) what had happened and asked that if she gets any inquiries about the VesTote (which the magazine hyphenated, BTW), if she would forward them to me. She agreed, saying she would be happy to help out a fellow Miller. Her name is Cheryl Miller. Miller. Now I kind of understand how it happened. I figure that someone queried Miller when filling in contact info, and hers came up before mine.  Drat.

Anyway, it's in there. It's beautiful. It's a full page. It's the first page of the Gallery section and it did refer in the body of the write-up that "she decided to offer them for sale at her website, yayamade."  So, hopefully if anyone is interested, they'll go to yayamade.com on which I have given the link to my shop at yayamade.artfire.com.  We'll see.