Monday, April 30, 2007

The Handle Saga Continues

So I was all excited to be picking up the handles for my big cream tote bag. Yeah nice long leather handles will be perfect. Apparently not.

I called up the yarn shop to let her know that we would be coming to pick the handles up today as they came in 2 weeks ago and we hadnt picked them up yet. She starts telling me how they didnt have leather handles even though I saw them in the catalogue. She starts telling me how she is sorry that she couldnt get me wooden handles and how she had even tried ebay for wooden handles. I kept saying that I didnt want wooden ones I wanted leather ones. She would say oh yeah leather ones, thats right. I think she was all confused about the whole thing. So she says to me that she got some bamboo handles for me so I can come and have a look to see what I think.

I already know these arent going to work because its the wrong colour for my bag and not wide enough but we went anyway. She said a couple of people had already wanted them so she would have no problem selling them if I didnt want them. I just wish that I had of gotten some sort of phone call two weeks ago telling me all this was going on. Not a word was spoken when she couldnt get what I ordered. Oh well what can you do.

We get to the shop and I took one look and knew they were all wrong. She had some D rings so I bought some of those and resigned myself to knitting I-cord handles and attaching them. Then she mentions that I could go to a thrift shop and see if I can find any old bags with handles that I could remove and use on my bag. Ah ha an excellent idea I think to myself.

So now I am up to the charity shop up the road to look for handles. If I dont find any there I bought some cream wool that pretty much matches my cream to make I-cord handles.
Hopefully this will all be over and I will be happy with whatever end result I get. This bag has changed so many times so who know what will happen next hehe.

Monday, April 23, 2007

I Think My Blog Need Some More Photos

Just felt like I hadnt posted any photos in a while and photos make a blog more interesting. So here are two felted bags that are waiting to be sold when I have a bunch made. The messenger bag is still waiting for the perfect material to line it with so it can have some inside pockets but I have a feeling that will be done pretty soon.


Three Bags Are Nearly Done

Yay three felted bags are nearly done. They all have a little something they need done to them and they will finally be ready to sell. Sagey Goodness is all felted and dried. It just needs a loop, a button and maybe some embellishments.

Big Cream Tote just needs the leather handles picked up, along with the leather button and everything to be attached.

Red Poppy bag just needs the poppies done, the buttons and two pockets done and sewn on.

Actually now that I have written that it doesnt really seem like they are nearly done does it hehe. I have been doing all this work on these bags that seems to be taking forever but the trouble is that I dont know if they will actually sell or if I even know what I am doing hehe. I guess I am just concentrating on getting them right and then having faith that I can get them out there and people will like them.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

I Couldnt Resist

I had to start making something out of my sagey goodness wool. I just couldnt help myself. I know I am suppose to be controlling my bad habit of starting too many projects but this wool has been sitting around unravelled for a over a month now and I have been dying to use it.
I am at the end of making a bag out of the sagey goodness which I feel this needs to be called because I just love the colour. I am at the bottom of the bag and then I just have to do the handles. I am dying to felt this up and see how its going to turn out.
Once its felted I will finally have to decide which way I am going to go with the embellishments on this bag. I think I am waiting to see how it comes out in the end to help me make my decision on the decorations. I am either going to do a wooden button with wooden beads or use this beautiful button I got a couple of weeks ago that is a kind of pearly white and add some glamorous beading to the outside. Then the question will be whether it needs material to line it or keep it natural.
So many questions to figure out the answer to but it will be fun.

To update on other projects I am working on. I am making the second panel for my cable pillow for our lounge. That is about a quarter of the way done. I am anxious to see if it will look ok once all seamed up or if its a complete flop.
I havent touched the red poppy bag since the middle of last week because Im not feeling confident in my embroidery skills so I am waiting to get the courage to finish the embroidery on that so I can go on to the next step. I love to do embroidery but my lack of experience and the fear of stuffing it up freaks me out hehe. I just have to jump in and finish it because so far its looking pretty good.

Well thats what Ive been up to lately. Time to get back to my bag of sagey goodness so I can get it all finished.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Getting Into A Bad Habit

I have been getting into a bad habit lately where I have been starting alot of projects. I dont like having a bunch of projects going at once because it seems to make them take longer. Two at a time seems to be a better way to do it but at the moment I probably have about 4 or 5 in the works.

I am currently working on a felted bag using a new technique that I got from a magazine article someone gave me. Instead of unravelling a woollen knitted jumper, you just put the whole jumper in the wash and felt the jumper. Once it is fully felted you can cut out any pattern or shape you want. So this red jumper below is in the final detail stages of being a bag. So far its not turning out to bad. I have been wanting to embroider some poppies on something for some reason and thought, perfect, this is red and so are poppies so that is what I am doing right now. I will post its transformation when it is completed. I am hoping this will be by the end of the week.


The picture below is the unravellings from a 100% wool cardigan I bought for about 25c a few weeks ago. It is going to be turned into a felted bag. I am dying to get to this project because I just love this sage colour. If I do it right this bag is going to be really cool.