Choir Tote

Although I always seem to have more bags than I know what to do with, I didn't have a suitable bag for choir. I wanted a dedicated bag, so I wouldn't be chasing up music and pencils and so on every week. I had a bit of a cursory look online for patterns but found nothing that really appealed to me, or met all my criteria:

• big enough for my current folder of music, with potential for more to come
• holder for my water bottle
• pocket for my choir scarf
• pockets for tea, pencils, erasers, and odd bits and bobs

The holder for my water bottle was pretty important; I'm always worried I'll forget to close it properly and it'll spill all through my music. We break for morning about 11am, which is far too late for me to be drinking caffeine, so I always carry my own decaf bags.

Our choir is called Jacaranda Jam (we're on Youtube at a school function, where we were 'invited guest performers' - Song 1, Song 2, Song 3). Our 'uniform' is black and purple with the choir scarf, which is a swirl of blues, greens, and purples. I wanted my bag to reflect that colour scheme.

My plan became to make a simple tote - a rectangular bag, with a quilted outer, lining, pockets and shoulder straps. No fasteners or fancy bits. Just simplicity. I did not take photos as I went but the basic steps I took were:

1. Piece the squares together into a 6 x 10 'mini quilt top'. The bag is just this one piece.
2. Quilt the top and iron-on pellon with a fancy stitch over all the seams. I ummed and ahhed about whether to use bag wadding, which is stiff, but decided I didn't really need the bag to stand up on its own.

Quilting detail

3. Cut the lining fabric the same size as my finished 'top'.
4. Sew the pockets. All the pockets are double layers; no hems.
5. Sew the pockets to the lining fabric. The bottle holder has no base, and on a side seam. I used my actual water bottle to determine where to attach the sides of the holder. If the holder is sewn flat against the lining, it will pull.
6. Sew the lining into a tube, and partially sew the bottom seam in from both corners (about 4 or 5 inches).
7. Sew the outer into a  bag.
8. Sew the base corners (this site has great instructions for box corners) in the outer and lining.
9. Sew the handles.
10. Pin the handles, outer and lining together and sew around the top opening. Refill bobbin.

This little gap of about 4 stitches is where my bobbin ran out while sewing the outer and lining together.

11. Reinforce the handles. Because they come out from between the outer and lining, I folded them down the outer about an inch and then back up. Over that double layer I stitched a box with x through it.

Handle top-stitching for reinforcement

 12. When I made my box corners, I didn't cut off the extra bit. To firm up the base, I cut a piece of stiff bag wadding, and attached the ends of it to the box corner flaps.
13. Sew up the hole in the base of the lining.
14. Fill with stuff.

Inside

Creativity Journal - Day 12 (Camouflage)

Camouflage. Create or alter something so that it disappears into its background.

I pinned this video quite some time ago for making a woven bangle or bracelet.

This week I finally got around to buying to plain, wooden bangle to work with. At the time I didn't think to buy appropriately coloured floss to work with, so I'm working with some stuff I had on hand.

Today, I decided to make a start. And how is this camouflage? Simple the wooden bangle will completely disappear when I'm finished.

The video shows the weaving sequence, but it doesn't actually tell you how to do the entire thing. This is what I've worked out so far.

1. Cut your 'warp' strands about one and half times the circumference of your bangle. Warp is the longitudinal strands - the coloured ones running around the bangle. The 'weft' is the cross-ways strands - in the original bangle, the black; in mine, the white.

2. If your floss is kinked from being wrapped on a bobbin, iron it before starting. The easiest way to do this is to take about five strands (too many and it's not as effective). Hold one end, place the iron near the end you're holding, and pull so the threads are pulled under the iron from one side to the other. Hold the other end and repeat.

Notice the difference between the ironed yellow and the unironed purple and pink.

3. Use a double sided tape (I used ordinary scrap booking tape), stick a single layer of warp floss onto the bangle. My bangle is about 1.5 inches across, which worked out to be about eight or nine strands each of four different colours. Put another layer of double sided tape over the top of the strands, and add a second layer of floss. The two layers ensures you don't get any gaps.

4. Number your warp colours 1 to 4 from left to right, weave the following pattern:

• under 1, over 2, over 3, under 4, wrap waft three times
• over 1, under 2, over, 3, over 4, wrap waft three times
• over 1, over 2, under 3, over 4, wrap waft three times
• Repeat

You could make any pattern you wanted. This is the pattern shown in the video. Watch the video to understand how to weave and wrap the waft threads.

I'm not quite sure how to finish it just yet. I ran out of warp thread (white). I used two, or part of two, skeins. I will need one more. When I'm finished, I'll post how I did it.

I don't wear bangles a lot, which is okay, because my Teen has her eye on this one. I am thinking that this would look good with ribbons instead of floss. I'm tempted to find a few more bangles. Of course, you needn't buy a new wooden one. I'm sure old ones that would work could be picked up in thrift shops for next to nothing.