I’ve been a-travelin’, so I’ve been all too absent on the blog front. But now I am effectively house-sitting, so I am back in business with a regular internet hookup. Yay! No more typing out e-mails on my phone and keeping vigilant track of which coffee shops offer wireless!
Image from SuperBuzzy
So, as you can guess, while traveling there has been no sewing. But I did pick up this GORGEOUS (to me, anyway) small piece of Japanese laminated cloth. It has birds on it (I love birds!), and I am thinking of at some point making myself a sporty purse from it. Because I love to use my homemade bags as purses, but regular fabric soaks through so quickly if I’m caught in a rainstorm, and I hate having to worry if my cell phone’s getting drowned.
I’ve been wanting to make a new purse for a while now, ever since a bag I made in August that I apparently never posted on BurdaStyle developed holes in the side, ostensibly from my keys. So I’ve been brainstorming types/shapes, and right now I’m leaning toward something like this from Overland:
Or this:
But I hate the idea of blatantly copying a bag, especially one made by a small business. So I’ll be using these as inspiration and maybe someday even be able to buy the real thing from them, too.
Any tips for sewing with laminate cloth? Is it going to be a major bummer? At least this stuff’s only coated with vinyl on one side, so I could try to only do inside seams–no topstitching–if the presser foot’s going to get stuck on sticky plastic coating. I’d love to know what your experiences have been.
Inevitably, it’s going to take a while to make my bag–or even get started making it. As you may remember, my brother’s wedding* is coming right up, so it won’t be long before I’m on the road and devoting my Internet time to more pressing matters than sharing my plans for future projects.
I hope you’ve all been having a lovely time of it these last few weeks. I’m off to go catch up on your blogs…
*If you made it to the footnote, you have been rewarded with juice! Well, as juicy as I’ll make anything on a public site on the Internet. The news? The bridesmaid dress that I made has been vetoed on account of its shade of green (though I did get clearance on the fabric months ago). Anyway, it’s goodbye, homemade Suzi Chin dress and hello, J. Crew.
Welcome back! For sewing with laminate, test out your machine on a little piece before starting the bag. Topstitching will make it stronger and look more pro, so if your machine can handle it I’d say go for it!
And I can’t believe your dress got vetoed! (Are you mad, and just can’t say so in case they read it?) It’s so pretty. Are you going to show us what you’ll be wearing instead?