Repurposed ties

I've had some old and colerful ties laying around for ages. I have tried several things with them but nothing really worked befor I got my hands on some flex frames. They were just the right size so I could turn the ties into small coin purses.

I love the bold and colerful pattens from the 70s

But after making these purses I have learnt to love the less colerful and more tradidional brown stripes as well.

To open you just squeeze the two sides togheter.

Purses of reused material

Judging by the activity on my blog you might think not much creative work has been done by me lately. Luckily, that is not the case, I've just been to busy to get the things i have done online.

I'll start off by showing you some purses in various sizes suitable for many things.

 They are made for many different tings such as tablecloths, pillowcases, old tapestry, ribbons and more.The flat one has a strap that can be attached so that it can be used as a wrist clutch.

The two biggest ones are big enough to carry shampoo bottles and are lined with oilcloth so that they can be easily cleaned if something got spilled inside them. 

Freehand machine embroidery

February isn't just my brothers month. A few days after him it was both his wifes birthday and mothers day. My sister in law had wanted me to make a embroidery of their dog for a long time so i decided that this would be a good opportunity fulfill her wish.

And when I first got started I desided to make a butterfly for my mother as well.

I mounted the pieces on some suede leather and made some pouches of that like i did last time. The only difference now was that i decided to line the pouches with fabric that matched the colors of the dog/butterfly.sadly I forgot to take a picture of that before I gave them away.

http://www.myrepurposedlife.net
http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/

Cartoon wallets

This year first fair is fast approaching and I have very few things left to sell so I feel a little stressed at the moment. 

 I decided to start by topping of my stock of cartoon wallets and first out is a very popular Norwegian cartoon, Nemi.  Combined with Calvin and Hobbes these wallets are always the first to go.

 I might be adding one or two to my Epla shop, but most of what I’ll be making the next month will go directly to one of the 5 fairs I have signed up for.

The wallet  is simmilat to the milk carton wallet you can see all over the net.Its big enough for you cards, has two rooms and closes with a push button.

http://www.myrepurposedlife.net

Men from mars, women from...

This weekend provided a little taste of spring here in Norway and I decided to use the opportunity to get some pictures taken in proper light. So finally I'm able to show you the rest of my freehand machine embroidered purses. The plan is to add them to my shop this week.

I spend a lot of time changing the color of the thread when I'm working on this project. That’s why I sew two of each motif at once, so that I feel a little efficient.

The bulldogs’twin brother was actually the first thing I sold on the spring market a couple of weeks ago. A man came over and said: "Is that supposed to be a bulldog?" and as the woman I am, I started over analyzing his tone of voice and reading between the lines (It’s not so out of proportion that you need to criticize... try to sew your own you person you...) before answering a quiet yes... The man: Ok, in that case I'll need to have it. And that was it... He was just a man of few words and had no hidden agenda what so ever.

The episode made me think and I have decided that this years` goal is to be more confident in myself and the work that I do so that I don’t worry about invisible critique from people that I don’t know. Because those that compare handmade with mass-produced products from the Far East is not in my target group anyway.

http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/
http://www.myrepurposedlife.net/

Freehand machine embroidery

It might sound self contradicting, but there is a lot more manual work needed for this than it might seem. I don’t have a fancy sewing machine mine is a plain and hard working one that is more than enough for my needs. But that also means that when I want to make something other than bowls and bags its not an easy task.

Maybe it was my short trip to London that gave me a little preview of spring that inspired me or maybe it was just the thought of warmer and lighter days ahead… either way I suddenly got the urge to sew birds.

One bird turned into two, and three, and then fox saw the light of day followed by a bulldog and a dachshund.

I mounted them on scraps of leather, denim and linen before sewing small zippered purses. Hopefully I’ll be able to show you the rest later this week, but for now the two sparrows will have to do.

http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/
http://www.myrepurposedlife.net/

New cartoon wallets

The process is time consuming but finally, the new stack of cartoon wallets is finished. There were exactly 30 of the in a combination of Calvin and Hobbes, Tom & Jerry, Disney, The Hulk and Lucky Luke.

What remains is the image processing before I can start listing them on Epla. (Norwegian Etsy)  But the image processing will be a challenge this time. I had to admit defeat and get a new computer. The reason why I put up with the old one for so long was that it had an original Photoshop version on it. I got the program from a former employer a few years ago so I had no product code or CD anymore.

I have therefore had to use the free program Gimp. I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this program. Considering the opportunities it offers it’s quite amazing that its free. But its not Photoshop so I’m missing some features and the things I don’t miss takes a lot longer to get done. (And a little longer becomes a lot longer when you multiply it with 150 + images)

Wallet

This weekend I participated in a sew along arranged at a forum that i frequent regularly. The result was this wallet and for my first attempt I’m relatively happy with it. But the next one is probably going to be a little bit narrower so that the cards don’t sit so loosely, and I’ll also use heavier interfacing to make it even more firm.

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