Back in Business

First, my apologies for the extremely long span between updates. A death in the family derailed last summer's plans for a while, but we're back on track now.

I've been quite busy lately. I signed up with my friend Beth, aka Eclectic Willow, to do a booth at the Red Kettle Craft Fair this month. The fair is on the 24th, and I've been working on some redesigned labels for my bath and body products, as well as creating some jewelry, bags, and other handcrafted accessories for the booth.

One thing that I really love to do in many of my crafts is upcycle. This morning I finished a bag that was made from some salvaged satin, a Goodwill courdoroy skirt, and some leftover tapestry fabric I had in my stash.

That skirt has already created one other simple bag and I still have pieces that will likely become another bag of some sort. My favorite part of today's bag was the pockets.

See that little zipper pocket? That was the zipper of the skirt. If you look closely on the left, you can see the edge of the waistband. I cut right next to the front pocket on the skirt, which didn't leave a lot of fabric on either size of the zipper, so I used that complimentary burgundy fabric to add enough depth for the pocket to hold something like a cell phone or iPod securely.

On the other side of the bag I created two pockets by stitching the sides and bottom of a pocket cut off the skirt, but leaving the top at the original waistband open. I also left a belt loop on there which can be handy for attaching keys.

The strap and closing flap are both made from that burgundy tapestry-type fabric, and the flap closes with a magnetic snap. The inside is an ivory satin-like fabric from an old dress. I could see this bag being a great purse or knitting/hobby bag, and in fact, as a knitting bag, it could carry a decent sized project inside while using the outside pockets for a small wallet, cell phone, keys, etc.

I find that I really enjoy taking a cool piece of clothing and random scraps of fabric, ribbon, trim, etc. and coming up with a design from it. It's almost like using fabric to make a functional item in a collage format.

I will be busy with more inventory for the craft fair, but I hope to be posting on here as we go. I may even do something for a discount and/or give-away, so please keep reading!