Bag of the Week 38

Fall Leaves

Fall arrived at 8:09 p.m. on Wednesday but here in Washington, DC it felt more like the height of summer with temperatures this week in the 90’s.  Hopefully those of you reading this post in cooler parts of the world will fully appreciate these little wool bags with appliquéd fall leaves.  For those of us still sweltering, may they bring hope that cooler weather is just around the corner.

Each of these bags is made from a variety of wool, many of which were repurposed from thrift store finds.  The bag design is a simple lined pouch.  The machine embroidered leaf designs, made from cotton batik fabrics, are from Kathleen Parman’s Herky Jerky line.  I featured other designs by Kathleen in my January 20^th and February 10^th posts this year.  Each bag was finished with an I-cord made from a novelty yarn (or two) and each has a twisted yarn strap.

Happy Fall!

Bag of the Week 6

Heart Pouch

Here’s a fun little number to spice up your Valentine date outfit.  I created this whimsical little purse several years ago for a show that I was participating in, and it was the first thing to sell at my booth.  The purse is made from red coat-weight wool and is sewn in a simple pouch style.  The heart design is another from Kathleen Parman’s Herky Jerky line (you can read more about Kathleen’s work in my January 20^th post).  I stitched the design on black fabric and then stitched the panel to the purse front using more Herky Jerky stitching.  I knit the eyelash I-cord from one strand each of black and red Fun Fur and created the strap from wool yarn using the Spinster.

Here’s another I created using the same design but different colors.

Bag of the Week 3

It’s been exactly a month since Old Man Winter dumped record-breaking amounts of snow on the Washington, DC area.  And here comes Mr. Snow Guy, just in time for our wintery January weather.  This little winter white wool pouch was adorned with a design by Kathleen Parman.  Kathleen developed a technique she dubbed “Herky Jerky” to describe the free-motion quilting around the edges of the appliquéd pieces.  Kathleen also developed a very clever machine embroidery technique for stitching up this and other designs.  This purse was done with one of her machine embroidery designs.  I appliquéd the design onto black fabric and sewed it to the front of the purse.  The purse is lined.  The Fun Fur I-cord around the top was made in the same manner as for The Safari Bag.  The strap is twisted cording made from winter white yarn and the Spinster tool.  I think this Snow Guy lives with my friend Michele now.

An internet search failed to turn up Kathleen's website.  Some of her patterns, including two of her machine embroidery CDs are available from Soft Expressions.  Sulky has a great tutorial complete with pattern and instructions for a Herky Jerky sweatshirt.  This technique is really fun and easy to do.  I will be featuring several other designs by Kathleen in the future.  Check back each week.  And that's what it's all about!