On my crazy Priscilla

Honestly, Priscilla is not for the feint-hearted.

She is bright, bold and certainly not a conformist.

The brigth spiral I appliqued on the front was sold to me as an African wax print.  I really doubt that it is, but nevermind....

The back of her is patchwork and spiral quilted - same as the front, with a variegated green topstitch cotton.

I continued the craziness on the interior with a bright stripey fabric and roomy pockets.

 Priscilla really is zany, but I do love her.

Are you brave enough to walk down the street with Priscilla on your arm?

On Miriam and Vashti

And here we go, all about Miriam and Vashti today.

Miriam is a simple tote, made unique by the bright colourful stripe she was made with.

Continuing the stripe on the inside, but a bright green one:

I put her handles on the outside and stitched them down in a rectangle.  They should last forever.

I didn't put any type of closure on her, as I really didn't think she needed it.  She'll be a trusty workhorse for anyone who owns her.

Vashti was made from a print I totally fell in love with.

However, what I didn't realise is that this particular synthetic would be extremely hard to work with.  It does not crease easily, even with an iron, but once the crease is there, almost impossible to get rid of.  

Which is why the tiny hems on the ruffled was really hard to do.  Also, the fabric frays like nobody's business. Which made it even harder!

I lined her with a grey/blue fabric that I suspect might be a silk, it's really gorgeous - again found on the off-cuts table.  Unfortunately none of the millions of pictures I took really shows the true colour of the lining.

I used the same fabric on her handle, as the body fabric really just isn't strong enough to hold up under the wear a handle goes through on its own.

I used the co-ordinating stripe on the back.  I must just say that although the prints are really pretty and all, there are TONS of flaws in them all.  I did try to work around most of them, hopefully I didn't miss any major misprints.

Overall, I quite like the look of her, I think she might just be a very witty girl once one gets to know her better.

Well, what do you think so far?  Did you read any of the other design stories?

On how Elisabeth came to be

Here is the next installment of the design stories behind my new products.

Today I’m going to tell you all about Elisabeth.

Now if you never heard the name William Morris before, you will most certainly recognise at least some of his designs.

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This fabric is an imported quilting cotton, released some few years ago to celebrate the birthday (if I recall correctly) of the person regarded as the “father” of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Being a William Morris fan-for-life, I could not resist buying the fat quarter pack containing these prints.  As the prints totally speak for themselves in my opinion, I kept the patchwork as simple as possible, not adding anything or taking anything away.

Originally Elisabeth had wooden handles, purchased at my local fabric store.  Unfortunately – as with most things found in South Africa these days (or what feels like it), the quality was sadly lacking.  My daughter accidentally bumped the bag off my work table and the one wooden handle broke.  Yeah. The wood BROKE.  For the longest time I could not for the life of me figure out what to do with this bag that was made to have those specific handles.  Then, lo! and behold! I found a similar shape set in resin.  I bought them – doubtful that they would fit or even look nice on the bag.  

To say that I was relieved and grateful that not only did the handles fit, they actually looked real good on the bag, is a total understatement.

So, what do you think? Do you think the handles go with the bag or not?

On Joanna’s design story

As I told you previously, I’m sharing the design stories behind my new products, you can read so far about Athaliah, Phoebe and Delilah.  

Today I’ll be sharing the design story of Joanna.

Now this fabric has been going around everywhere on everything.

As I have a daughter at university now, I came to realise that she needs a bag for her books and stuff, a big one, but not an unwieldy one, and as she and all her friends use tablets and pads, there should be room for that too.  And she’s probably not the only student who needs a nice bag.

The bag must be easy to open and close, but secure at the same time – there’s all types of kids (unfortunately) around university, therefore the flap with the magnetic closure.

This fabric is similar to a cotton canvas (or cotton duck). It’s actually machine washable and can be tumble dried.  But since the bag has synthetic batting in to make it sturdy, I do not recommend the tumble dry part, as I think the batting will probably shrink in the heat of a tumble drier, if it doesn’t burst into flames or something.  So I recommend the bag to be washed in a machine, on cold setting.

Now, I don’t know how you feel about energy saving and stuff, but I do try to do my part.  I wash my clothes in cold water – in fact the warm water inlet on my washing machine isn’t even connected.  Not only does it save energy, it also saves your clothes, as there is less wear on the fibres in cold water.  Think that cold water doesn’t wash clean?  I’ve found that if I use the washing powder recommended by the manufacturer my clothes come out perfectly clean.  Whites white and all that.

So, Joanna can be washed in a machine, dried in the sun and ironed on a warm setting, since we all know how careless students can be and how they chuck their bags down any old where.

What is your opinion on Joanna?  Would you wear her if you were a student?

On how Delilah came to be

Here is the next installment of the design stories behind the new products, now available here too.

Delilah’s fabric is also an African wax print. 

 However, looking at the fabric, it called to mind something art-deco-ish to me.  Don’t you see it too?

Well, I’ve had this pattern in mind for a while, but never came across just the “right” fabric until I saw this.

This shape is odd, I grant you.  

But look, why have something ordinary all the time?

I found the inspiration from what is called a “chatelaine” from earlier times, like this one

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However, for a modern woman a little purse like this is totally impractical.  And I must confess, although Delilah is much bigger, I suspect she might not be the most practical bag I’ve ever made.

I added a few gold coloured beads to the flap, which works with a magnetic snap, just to add that little bit of interest. 

At first I wanted to add a whole lot of gold beads, but I changed my mind, as I thought it would be a sort of over-kill, with the odd shape, the strange strap placement etcetera.  Do you think I made the right decision?

Delilah is also lined in the cream bridal satin I used for Athaliah, as this lady deserves something glam!

I called her Delilah because – just like the lady in the Bible, she steals your heart without you meaning to have it happen.

“Whyyy why whyyyy Delilah….” (admit it: you sang that)