Tuesday, April 17

the elves and the bag maker...

yesterday was pretty productive in the end. managed to get some bags made without being too distracted. whenever i get to the end of a bag, it always seems nothing short of a miracle to me that it actually all fits together properly and has turned out just fine...i 'love' making the outsides. don't mind, but not 'in love' with making the linings and my least favorite thing to do is the handles.




so as i was sewing away at my machine, my mind started to wander and i got to thinking about the fairy tale "the elves and the shoemaker". then i got to wondering, if i left all my bits of 'handle pieces' laid out on the table over night with some cookies and milk, maybe the elves would help me out...as you can imagine when i took a peek in this morning at 5:45 all the pieces were just as i left them...still you can't blame a girl for trying.

today i plan, in between laundry, cooking, soccer, driver's ed, dance and grocery shopping, to finish off the dreaded handles and then move on to slips...that way i have time to wash, dry and photograph them for listing by the end of the week. i am hoping that the weather starts getting better for picture taking, every time the sun shines, i hop outside ready to take some fabulous pics, only to find the wind is blowing a gale and the slips look like sails on a boat...thinking i may add a few of the bags i have been working on this week to the shop along with the slips. haven't had much luck with bags on etsy before, but these are brighter and more summery, so i shall give it ago...after all i've got nothing to lose and everything to gain!

pictures have no relevance to my posting, i just like #1's sock monkey collection and they make me smile. i particularly like "agatha". third from the left, top picture, i like the earrings and her rather natty little cloche hat i made for her...the two on the left, my #1 child made herself, what a talent...

Tif

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I absolutely HATE making the handles, too, so you are not alone ;) Sometimes when I'm on a bag kick, and I just don't have the patience for handles, I buy the widest double-fold bias tabe and stitch together a double layer. It's stupidly expensive for making simple, cotton tote handles, but it works and is easy.

All of your amazing work gave me the guts to dye a few of the slips from my vintage collection that I wasn't crazy about...to great affect! I'm shocked that I got such a beautiful, rosy red out of Rit dye and (probably) synthetic slips!

Anonymous said...

I think your bags are so lovely, if you were to list a few on Etsy I might be forced to buy one or two. :)