I’ve been playing with fused plastic to make handbags and shopping bags. To make the plastic fabric I used plastic take way bags and other plastic bags I’ve collected for this. There are plenty of tutorials online if this is something you are unfamiliar with.

Here is a photo tutorial of the handbag.  Here is what I ended up with.

Finished purse

I started with two sheets of fused plastic, about 15″ x 18″

I cut the body of the purse out of one sheet:

The remaining pieces get cut from the second sheet. The straps are made 3 inch wide material that is folded one inch in from each edge then sewn down the sides.  For the zipper panel I found the length by measuring the top edge of the purse. I folded it in half and cut out an inset area where the zipper gets sewn. My zipper was too long, but since it had plastic teeth it was no problem to sew over it and shorten the length.

Here are the pieces I made:

Two end pieces, two straps, body (folded) and a zipper panel.  If you take a zipper out of something you no longer wear, like I did, your purse is totally made from upcycled materials.

Pick the side of the plastic that will show then sew the straps to the interior side with the handles looping out. Sew on the end pieces, then the zipper panel and Bob’s Your Uncle! You’re done.

No need for a pattern, just eyeball it. Really.

Pileux

February 3 – 28, 2012

Fort Worth Community Art Center

1300 Gendy Street

Fort Worth, Texas 76107

Hours: M-F 9AM – 5PM; SAT 10AM – 5PM

http://www.artsfortworth.org

Joe LaBerge, Joyce Martin, Gerry Wissler, Terry Horn, Pam Stern, Brenda Benson and Lori Thomson are a new group of seven artists working in three dimensions. Each artist brings a different talent to the mix, but all are passionate about their sculpture processes. Dimension is the thread that binds this group. “If we could work in seven dimensions, we probably would,” Joyce Martin said about the group of sculptors who run the gamut as far as media and style are concerned.

Machine quilted blanket

I remember promising to show you this little quilt I made a while back and so here it is. My first attempt to do a “Quilt as you go” project. I used blocks left over from another quilt to make this and it worked up surprisingly fast.

Gift items made this holiday season:

Hand quilted bread blanket

To accompany this:

Challah

and this-

Mango Jalapeno Jam

Which brings me to another promise that I finally kept. A year ago I gave a gift certificate, for two custom made shirts, to a dear friend of mine who can never seem to find the perfect shirt. He is very particular about pockets and fabric, as well as fit. I searched high and low for a shirt pattern to accomplish this and finally purchased a basic pattern that I had to alter substantially.

I  added french cuffs to the pattern and removed the seam that ran down to the elbow in the sleeve. I added a true yoke plus an additional fold of fabric down the back for ease of movement. I enlarged the pockets and added pocket flaps.  I ended up making three shirts since the changes were so extensive. Parts of two of them can be seen below in the sample photo illustrating a french cuff.

French Cuffs

Gift shirt

Someone please stop me from making a promise of this sort again!  I found myself quite annoyed that pattern makers  dumb down the patterns until they are practically useless.  Rather than showing how to make a french cuff they cut the sleeve into two pieces so that you could use the seams to bind the cuff opening.  This makes a very weak point in the shirt.

I know that we don’t always have the luxury of time to make things right so it means taking shortcuts to speed up the process. I do it myself! But why make something that ends up looking homemade, has weak seams and costs more that a shirt off the shelf? This is the primary reason I quit sewing for myself. I can get it cheaper and quicker off the shelf. The cost of fabric these days is pretty high unless you are fortunate enough to get it on sale. The fabric (alone) at regular price would have cost twice as much as the cost of new shirt.  And what about the cost of labor?

I am truly happy to have finished what I promised. I just can’t help thinking about the time spent on this project. I do not begrudge it. But I do wonder how I would have charged for my time were I sewing this for money. If the cost of the materials and the pattern and the necessary supplies already far exceed the cost of a similar garment, how does one recoup the cost of time?

But, back to the quilt. I had to make up a quite a bit of binding to cover the joins in the quilt. I don’t have one of those lovely tools that will fold the fabric  as you feed the strips through, so I stitch  tailor tacks to my ironing pad and pull my strips through, ironing as I go. Hint: Just make your line of stitches straight, and keep the top and bottom of stitches equidistant so that the fabric compresses evenly underneath as you pull it through. It’s  also a good idea to sew the strips together on the bias so you only have to thread the strips through the stitches once.  The initial threading can be a little tricky.

One of my favorite tools is the rotary cutter.  If I didn’t have this tool I don’t think I would be sewing anymore. Honestly. I’ve ruined so many expensive “made for lefty” scissors because I can’t seem to keep from springing them.

Joining the strips with the binding

Here is a shot of the process of joining the binding to the quilt. Because this is a “quilt as you go” I pre-quilted all of my borders and center strips. I am trying to learn what the limits are for this process on my sewing machine.  I think I have reached my max! This will end up at about 50 by 60 inches. Not so large, yet about as big as I can handle…

Waiting for the edge binding

Now that I’m ready for the edge binding I’m wondering if I shouldn’t use something other than red. Perhaps a red and white stripe? I’ve backed it with a piece of fabric that is tan on white.  What would you do?

Next time I’ll show you a small quilt that I finished not too long ago, done in the “quilt as you go” block method.  But for now, It’s time to get in the holiday spirit around here.

So, what’s up with you?

Crazy quilt strips

Last week I gathered my fabric scraps with the idea of making some crazy quilt type pot-holders. I save fabric scraps and quilt trimmings just for this. Using long leftover batting scraps and fabric strips I began sewing the quilted strips that I planned to cut into pot-holders.  Then I had the bright idea to turn those strips into a quilt instead of using them as I had planned. Because I already had my quilted sandwich I didn’t think joining the strips the traditional way would work well because of the thickness it would produce in the seams. I decided to butt the edges and overlay them with zigzag stitches, then overlay with a seam binding.  I had tried this technique using lace next to lace, and felt next to felt, so I thought why not with quilt strips?

Curving quilt strips

I found some lovely red fabric to use as the border and color bands between the strips, pre-quilted them, and cut into the necessary pieces and began to sew them together. After examining the first pass I discovered I had a few gaps where the stitches missed all together so I cut some thin gauze to put on the back as a binder. You can see it in the first picture.

The first one came out great! The second joining though was a nightmare! I lost several inches on one side and ended up with a curve that might look good in a sleeve but wouldn’t do at all in a quilt top.  Yikes! I can just imagine what that will look like once I have all the strips together!  

Cutting them apart

Problem solving can be challenging, frustrating and time consuming and to be expected when you are flying by the seat of your pants. That’s one of the joys of building your own, starting from scratch, designing as you go. Working without a pattern means you get to work out the kinks on your own. So, when you finally do solve that problem, we can add satisfying to the above list.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! I am thankful for the day, for the problems that come my way, and the chance to break bread with friends and family.  I haven’t solved the problem of the curving strips yet. Maybe I will even post my solution if anyone is interested.  And if you have any suggestions for me, don’t hesitate to offer them.

Cheeyoon Chun thesis presentation at SCI-Arch

One graduate thesis presentation
at SCI-Arch  that caught my eye was called Stack Vs. Pile by Cheeyoon Chun.

I thought it was a beautiful presentation but wondered what in the world it had to do with architecture! I did hear one of the jury members question the validity of the presentation, but that was a question asked of each student, to produce a thesis defense. Unfortunately I could not hear his response. I had to do some follow up reading to grasp his concept. Here is an excerpt from the graduate catalog: It is human nature to present order but it is nature’s intent to create chaos. Piles suggest a sense of landscape, and stacks are defined within architectural discourse.  The transition from a stack to a pile does not occur at a specific point; rather, it is a series of transformations.  Sculptural attitudes and architectural interventions will demonstrate the relationship between landscapes and objects found through repetition and variation. This demonstration challenges the convention of the stack and the pile as two separate entities.  This thesis explores various behavioral and material studies, moving architecture, as an ordering act towards more nuanced, behavioral and disordered ontologies.

Presentation from the back of the room.

What struck me about this was that it seemed to have little to do with architecture and much to do with performance art. Cheeyoon Chun created a chaotic moment when all of the glass was toppled.  I had to run outside and take pictures through the window, trying to capture the moment of freefall. I didn’t do  so well at that, I’m sorry to say.

Glasses toppling over behind a plastic barricade

I wanted to argue with him a bit about his statement that it is human nature to present order, and nature’s intent to create chaos. To prove my point I would have had to produce photos of my chaotic studio, with all of my stacks and piles. I decided against that; after all, this was his moment to shine! The chaos produced by his actions produced some lovely photos though.  I rather like this one below

After the fall

On another subject entirely, my very talented friend Cheryl MacLennan  will be in town for a book signing November 12th, at 1:00 pm at the Barnes and Noble  bookstore at University Village. That’s here in Fort Worth, for you long distance readers.  If you get a chance drop by and and see the beautiful book about the historic homes of Jefferson, Texas and get your autographed copy if you like. More information about her photography can be found at her link on the right.

Kitchen notes: Now that the weather has cooled off a bit, I find I’ve been bitten by the cooking bug.  I try to adhere to a no waste policy when it comes to cooking.  In an effort to use up leftovers I decided to try baked Acorn Squash as a replacement for refried beans when I was making Tostadas for lunch.  I spread the baked squash directly on the toasted corn tostada, added a bit of garlic, some diced chicken and shredded cheese and popped it in the toaster oven for a bit, and it was remarkably good eaten with some good tomato salsa. Delicious!

Honestly, I love to cook. Since discovering just how easy it is to make tamales, I’ve experimented with quite a few types and have come up with some new favorites. Much to my dismay, I discovered we didn’t have any more tamales in the freezer, so I knew it was time once again to get into the tamale making mode. Yesterday I made up 5 dozen Spinach and Ricotta tamales and tomorrow it will be chicken tamales. I had to cook up the chicken today to make the filling. That’s why I had it on hand for the Tostadas!  I freeze my tamales in packages of 6 so when I don’t feel much like cooking I just unwrap, pop them in the steamer basket for a bit until heated through and I’ve got a mouthwatering meal that beats any TV dinner I’ve ever seen.

Knowing I was going to be putting away a large quantity of tamales in my small box freezer I knew it was time to pull out all the fruit I’ve frozen and stored in there this past year and can it up. It turns out I had quite a bit of fruit. I made 8 pints of blueberry pineapple jam, 3 pints and 6 half pints of pure blueberry jam, and 7 pints of  mixed fruit jam that had figs and other fruit.  I should have taken a picture!

I know that sounds like a lot of jam, but believe me, it comes in handy during the holidays as a great gift basket item. Pop in some homemade jam along with a fresh loaf of bread or homemade English Muffins and you have an unbeatable gift-basket.

Flowering tree

I notice this all the time and rarely wonder at it, but I found striking similarities in these photos that brought it clearly to mind.

First (and most obvious) we see an image of a flowering tree against a wall with a grid like structure. Then we see a plastic structure against a grid with nature in the background. Sort of a yin yang thing, don’t you think?

I see other similarities, but am curious to hear what you think.

I love these photos with the rain on the windshield!