Bag of the Week 25

The Museum Bag

I don’t know about where you are, but here in the greater Washington DC area this week’s temperatures have topped the 90 degree mark.  Summer has arrived for sure.  And the hot, hot colors in this week’s bag just shout summer to me.   

Several years ago my American Sewing Guild (ASG) Chapter sponsored a workshop with Barbara Randle who taught us all how to create The Museum Bag.  It was a great day and a wonderful class.  Barbara is a very inspiring teacher and, even though we were all working from the same kits, each bag had a unique personality all its own.  The bag is constructed using Barbara’s Crazy Quilting with Attitude technique (I blogged about this here) and made from beautiful pieces of silk.  The seams are embellished with decorative stitches and the bag further enhanced with couched fibers.  The bag is lined with a fun cotton print fabric and closes with a magnet.

On Tuesday I’ll be posting a tutorial I’ve been working on along with more project ideas so please check back often.  Hope everyone has a great weekend – try to stay cool!

Bag of the Week 10

The Picksac

Like last week’s bag, this week’s selection was designed by Barbara Randle and is called the Picksac.   The instructions and pattern for this bag can be found in Barbara’s book Crazy Quilting with Attitude. 

The body of the bag is created from a solid piece of fabric, in this case, an ivory and navy toile.  The front and back of the purse have pockets that were pieced from a variety of denim prints.  A single handle, large button and tassel complete the bag.

The bag is lined with a medium weight denim, and the difference between the weight of the inner and outer fabrics created a neat piping effect along the top edge.  In fact, this look was created simply by favoring the heavier lining fabric slightly when pressing the edge.

After writing about Barbara’s two books last week I noticed one for sale at one of my favorite discount book sites, www.hamiltonbook.com.  More Crazy Quilting with Attitude  is on sale here for a mere $4.95.  This is a beautiful and inspiring book, one you will be pleased to add to your collection.

Bag of the Week 9

Gondola by Barbara Randle

The vernal equinox might be another two weeks away but I am sure wishing for a little breath of spring.  So I pulled out one of my cheeriest purses for this week’s bag.  This is one of several designs I have made by Barbara Randle.  

Barbara is best known for her modern take on crazy quilting.  She is the author of two books, Crazy Quilting with Attitude and More Crazy Quilting with Attitude, and offers classes throughout the country as well as from her home in Birmingham, AL.  Her designs are fresh, modern and full of color.  She likes to use a black/cream colored print in her work which really makes the colors POP!  Her technique is not hard to master and the embellishing portion is loads of fun.  Barbara also has several patterns available through the Vogue Pattern company.

This bag is similar to Barbara’s Gondola Purse.  I made this bag while attending Martha Pullen’s School of Art Fashion.  Barbara designed this bag for the event and came with lots of kits in all sorts of color choices.  I chose colors that I love but that were a little outside of my comfort zone just to challenge myself a bit.  The fabric pieces, largely silk, were pieced onto a canvas foundation and then embellished with couched fibers and decorative stitches.  The lining, in two cheery colors, lime green and turquoise, has lots of pockets for organization.

This was a really fun purse to create and is also fun to carry.  It gets lots of attention!  Watch for several other B. Randle Designs to show up as a Bag of the Week in the future.

Bag of the Week

I love to make bags:  purses, totes, shoe bags, pails.  You get the idea.  In fact, I have made and photographed nearly enough “bags” (some of the items may be somewhat loosely defined) to feature a bag a week for the entire year.  Check back each week for new ideas and pictures.  Tutorials will be included on some of the pieces.

The Vintage Reticule Pattern was created by Hope Yoder.  I first made this bag in a class with Hope (watch for pictures of that bag in the future) at Sew Special Studio.  Each year I make and donate a few items to a silent auction for the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance, and this is the bag I created for them in 2008.  The color scheme was inspired by the fabric used for the top band – a chocolate brown printed velvet with tones of taupe, green and rust.  The bottom portion of the bag is crazy quilted with coordinating silk dupioni using Hope’s instructions and then embellished with couched fibers and bobbinwork decorative stitches.  The bag was lined with rust colored silk dupioni; the same fabric was used to make the top ruffle and to cover the large button on the front.  Beaded eyelash trim separates the two bands and the bag was finished with a beaded tassel.  The strap was made from thick cording covered with bias cut chocolate brown wool crepe using a FasTurn tool.