Experiments: Time lapse of Hyancinths

I grew Hyancinths this year for the first time because I love the scent. I hadn’t realised how quickly they grow: they go from bud to bloom within a day. I also like playing with my cameras: my old one has an interval shoot setting which I used to catch the growth of the hyancinth blooms. And a pesky slug.

Brown Harajuku Peacock Bag

Heres to boredom.

Harajuku Peacock Bag

I bought this peacock singlet in Takeshita Street, Harajuku (the shopping district made famous by Gwen Stefani). I loved the embroidery, but being a Japanese ‘one size fits all’, it has never fit me. Naturally, I decided to make it into a bag.

Again, this bag involved either recycled materials, or those I already had: singlet, brown tablecloth ($3 from a local op-shop) and a brown belt (originally 2 for $5 from Jeanswest Clearance) that I’d never worn. Once again (see black hand bag entry, from a few days ago) I used thermal curtain fabric for stability and strength. The zips used I bought in bulk from an op shop around five years ago (I always have hundreds of zips … maybe a bag made entirely of zips is up next …? I’ve seen them done.)

This time I took construction photos, with the intent of demonstrating how I put together some of the tricker aspects: mostly pockets. It is, again, based on JCaroline’s Hobo Bag Pattern.

The best feature of this bag, is the hidden pocket inside the external pocket: it’s not apparent. Why the obsession with hidden pockets? I keep passports, travellers cheques and important documents in them when I travel; they’re hardly secure enough to smuggle dope through customs, or if a thief steals the whole bag; but they will prevent a pickpocket taking anything serious, or a random backpacker quickly searching through your bag from finding the good stuff.

Just to make things more challenging, I put a zip in the top. Not as hard as I’d expected.

If you have any questions, please don’t hestiate to ask.

Again, if there’s anyone making clothing or bags from recycled materials, let me know. I’m also interested in unique approaches to making clothing or bags.

Harajuku Peacock Bag

Internal pockets with blue edging and zips. There is a large internal zip (behind the peacock), two pen slots, a mobile phone pocket, a money pocket and a pencil case.

Large external pocket. I handsewed the brown fabric around the zip to avoid visible stitching, and to give a neater finish.

The hidden pocket, the zip of which is white, and out of site above the external pocket opening.

Construction of secret pocket: completed.

Above the opening is the white zipped opening for the secret pocket, stitched in such a way to be flat and unobvious.

Opening of the secret pocket. The interior of the secret pocket is poplin, the external pocket is curtain thermal fabric (shiny cream).

The frontspiece of the bag. Behind the peacock, to be accessible from the inside is a large pocket. The peacock, being on knitted fabric was mounted on a sturdy curtain fabric; this fabric was also used as one side of the internal pocket. Because both outside and lining were attached from the beginning (due to this pocket), it made putting all the body pieces together interesting.

The brown fabric was handsewn onto the pocket construction because I wanted a clean finish, but also because machine stitching would go right through the secret pocket.

The inside pockets. A rectangle of brown fabric, and poplin lining is bound with binding on one edge. Pockets for pens and my mobile is pinned and darted.

I wanted a pencil case (typical teacher need). I sewed the poplin lining in such a way to avoid visible seams (even on the inside of the pencil case).

Pockets ready to be stitched. The pencil case is secured. Last minute I decided to turn the left hand corner into a money pocket (what can I say, thousands of zips).

Sew one side of zip for money pocket …

… and pinning other side to lining piece.

All pockets stitched to lining piece. I tried to organise it so I would have to stitch a minimum of seams.

Pockets and lining piece ready to go. The small loop on outside the money pocket is for hanging keys or similar (I always need to hang something on my bag).

Remember I said the peacock side was attached to the lining by one of the internal pockets? Here, I’ve put together all of the pieces and it is ready to be turned inside out.

Turned inside out, ready for finishing along the top.

Zipper piece to go in the top. I bound it with blue for the interior to avoid exposed seams (both for cosmetic and durability reasons).

The zipper piece stitched in, the strap (actually a Jeanswest belt with a few pieces removed) fitted in (using a similar method to the original Jcaroline pattern).

Finished. Now the edges have been bound with brown fabric. One edge of the binding was stitched, but again I decided to handsew the rest, for a neater finish.

Note I didn’t attach the zipper piece at the ends, only along the horizontal sides: this is to allow the zipper piece to move and also so I can drop money in without having to open the bag!

The other end of the belt was just tacked to the side.

Black Hand Bag

Black Hobo Bag

Recently home bound by a knee injury, I returned to my old nerdy hobbies: knitting, sewing, painting.

I made this bag from a black crepe skirt, the packaging from a quilt cover, a black vinyl belt, thermal curtain fabric, leftover satin from a prom dress, and black bias binding. All items were either in my kit or lieing around the house: in the interest of frugality and recycling I didn’t buy anything to make it.

The design is adapted from JCarolineCreative’s really nice Hobo Bag design (why ‘Hobo’? What’s wrong with ‘satchel’?), which you can find patterns and instructions at http://www.jcarolinecreative.com. The pattern is very clean, easy, and well designed, and I’ll definitely use it again.

Inside bag - pen slots, and mobile phone holder.

Basic construction details: there’s four layers: the clear vinyl (from the quilt bag packaging) and the black crepe from the skirt; and the thermal and red satin. Pockets, edged with bias binding, were constructed in the lining before putting together, a hidden pocket using an invisible zip was put into the vinyl in the side front seam, and the lip, where the lining and outer are joined, was edged with bias binding (as opposed to a seam, as the vinyl made turning inside/out very difficult).

Inside bag - zippered pocket. The satin frayed too much so I needed to edge it in the binding. The interiors of the pockets are curtain fabric (white).

The straps are pretty straight forward: black crepe, thermal (for strength), and black vinyl from a cheapo belt I rescued from my mother’s Goodwill bag. I used the buckle from the belt, and a loop from an old backpack instead of the rings. I didn’t do the bow tie as per the pattern as vinyl just doesn’t like to tie. The clasp was improvised from the black vinyl.

Hidden pocket with impossible zip. Intended for hiding passport or other things casual lookers into your purse shouldn't find.

There is an insanely large amount of work here: I wanted something functional, but also something of a challenge. It took a good one and a half days worth of work to put it together. Probably wouldn’t use clear vinyl as an exterior layer again: it’s a pain in the arse to work with. Can’t pin it, so I resorted to using sticky tape (!). Invisible zips should be renamed impossible zips, especially when working with vinyl, in the end I had to hand sew it. The satin is a really nice lining, but all you gotta do is look at and it frays, hence the bias binding everywhere – however, the binding gave it a really nice finished off look which isn’t really in the original pattern. Will use the thermal curtain fabric again: excellent for bag making, solid, sturdy and tough. It works excellently here as an interfacing.

Strap detail - the buckle from the belt. The strap is black vinyl lined with the crepe, so when turned back you see the crepe. A nice detail.

I’m always interested in other’s projects using found objects and recycled clothing: if you’re up to something, leave a link.