Check out my new bag!!!!

So I am off to a very productive long weekend in the studio!  Yesterday, I started painting some tightly-woven cotton fabric that turned into this adorable new bucket-type shoulder bag.  I've been wanting a new bag and I will tote this one everywhere!  My inspiration for this bag comes from the fabulous fabrics that Alisa Burke paints and draws on as well as the adorable bag that Tonia Davenport made and posted on CreateMixedMedia.com.  Take a look through my creative process.  The thermofax screens are new ones that I made a few weeks ago.  I'm really loving my doodled squares and will be selling this one off my blog in the very near future so stay tuned!!!  Here is the finished bag - yummy!!


 





 I started this project with a piece of cotton fabric approximately 40" x 17".  I laid one coat of Gesso over the entire piece of fabric using a credit card to spread the paint evenly.  Then I let it completely dry.  From there, I went over the entire piece using basic craft acrylic paint adding areas of blue, green, yellow, and orange that I spread around using a sponge brush with water so the paint would move around and blend gently.  After that layer dryed, I went back over the entire piece with the same craft paints in areas, spreading the paint around with my fingers and adding a lot of white heavy body acrylic paint to finger blend with the colors.  The two layers were necessary to cover the gesso background and enhance the blending of the paint for a softer look.  In some areas, I made texture marks with the edge of the credit card.

After that second layer dryed, I went in with my doodled squares thermofax screen and printed sections randomly across the fabric using white acrylic paint.  Again, I waited until this layer dried before the next steps.

Next, using thermofax screens of some of my doodled flowers, I printed a variety randomly across the fabric in hot pink acrylic paint and let that layer dry.

After all layers were dry, I used a black Sharpie marker to outline and add detail to the doodled flower prints to help define them from the background.

The construction of the bag was done freely without any pattern. I simply decided how deep I wanted the bag (12") and how wide I wanted the box bottom (4"). I simply folded the fabric until I had approximately 15" for the front and back connected by the fold at the bottom and cut off any remaining fabric to use for the straps. 

For the lining, I cut a piece of coordinating fabric the same size.



Next, I stitched the side seams then pinched each of the bottom corners and stitched a perpendicular line across the corners where the measurement was 4" wide. Reinforce this stitching line by sewing it a few times.  I repeated this step with the lining fabric.

For the straps, I made sure that I ended up with at least 26" each.  Using four 1 1/2" rings, I created a small strip to connect the ring to the bag that would be stitched into the top stitching between the lining and the bag.  I used a coordinating hot pink fabric that matched the doodled flowers and fused strips of the painted fabric to it then stitched through the entire strap.  Then I stitched the straps through the rings a few times to reinforce them. 

I will be working on lots of good stuff this weekend so check back later!


Comments

Love the bag, but I'm mostly crazy about your created fabric. Yum! Those doodle squares are awesome.
Donna Belliveau said…
I love how you've used bright colors for this bag. The little squares in the background make it a very interesting pattern. I LOVE this bag Margaret!
Anonymous said…
Wow--this is supercute, Margaret! Nice job! It's really fun to make things out of fabric you create yourself, isn't it?
Adrian said…
I keep coming back to this post. The colors are just wonderful! Thanks for sharing your work again.