One of a kind

I was asked for one of my photo bags for a Christmas present.  It was to show my cat - to start with to show him awake but then it was to show him asleep and instead of being landscape it needed to be in portrait format.

I thought about the design of this bag for quite a while.  The picture was the easy part.  A picture of young Bruce asleep and dreaming, that way we could have the best of both worlds.  It also gave me a chance to put lots of butterflies and dragonflies on the bag (for Bruce to be dreaming about - he likes to chase them).

The portrait format was harder because I didn't feel that it would give enough room in the bag to make it practical.  My solution was to make laminated panels for each end of the bag using THE JAYNE NETLEY MAYHEW COLLECTION from Joanna Sheen.  There are lots of big cat patterned backing papers on the cd roms that were perfect I chose a leopard print one.

Now the big issue was whether I had managed to over complicate the design and to be honest I didn't really want to start it in case things went badly .........I did a lot of the final construction on Boxing Day morning knowing that it had to be done so I could deliver it that afternoon.

Over sewing the panels together with a zigzag stitch turned out to be a bit easier than I had imagined and the black lace trim on the bag and braided into the handles gave it a nice finish.  

It could be truely one of a kind as I am not at all sure I want to make another one not even for myself.

let sleeping cats lay

 

Merrily crafting again.

Back to creating.  I have spent several relaxing days reading other peoples blogs, pouring over stuff on Etsy, roaming over the wonders of Pinterest and reading magazines.  Now it is time to stop looking and see what I can do.  I have dug out the tiny tiny bottles than I brought from Ebay years ago and started to fill them, next step is to make something to hang the pendants on - I thought braided ribbon with little beads would work well.  I really want to create that SHOW STOPPING something that will kick start my Etsy shop.  It is not that I dont believe the items already on Etsy aren't good because I do it is just there is so much fantastic stuff there that I need to rethink.  It may be how I am tagging my items.  I was so pleased just before Christmas when one of my items got placed on a treasury list - a step in the right direction.

Lots of ideas floating around inside my head just waiting to become solid and touchable.............watch this space for more over the next few days.


I also want to start making my own clothes again. The only way I can dress as I want instead of how others think I should.  Big boxes of fabric upstairs so lots of opportunity.  This desire to dressmake again in partly triggered by a book I got for Christmas 18th century Embroidery Techniques by Gail Marsh                             ISBN 978-1-86108-476-7  http://www.amazon.co.uk/18th-Century-Embroidery-Techniques-Marsh    Lots of useful information a book I would recommend. 

Other things to learn/try this year goldwork and needlefelting.