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Getting Past Creative Block

1/31/2015

This week's blog is a little off the beaten path. Normally I'd walk you though a new bag I was working on, but do you wonder what happens in my head prior to that sewing moment? People are surprised that I have the time to make as many bags as I do while holding down a full time job and navigating through life. Whether or not i'm "in the mood" to sew really depends on how inspired I feel. That inspiration usually comes from a completely non-sewing related place. Its sort of like I have this one room in my brain that is the creative room. The door gets shut sometimes - usually from life stress, but sometimes from trying to force myself to be creative. I suppose it would be like writer's block to an author (and i do refer to it as creative block). I have to find ways to get the door open otherwise I'm frustrated and freaked out that I can't get in there. My son has been witness to this many times. He tries to talk me off the ledge "you're not stuck just walk away from it for a minute.." but the more I focus on it the more that door gets extra locks added to it. You know those times that you can't fall asleep and you keep looking at the clock freaking out that you can't sleep which actually makes you more awake?? Yes, we've all done that. Same type of feeling.

So what do I do to break the cycle? #1 on my list is to get out in nature.

I love where i live. Hillsborough is awesome and its easy to feel inspired here. I can drive two miles and go for a hike at the Historic Orange Speedway (specifically on the James Johnston preserve). I can go four miles to Occoneechee Mountain. It is generally my hope to see some cool mushrooms and some sort of wildlife. I don't know why i've grown to have such an affinity to mushrooms. I think i've started realizing that the varieties are endless, and even when everything else looks dead they are still alive and thriving. Here are some of my favorites:

Shelf fungus like on the right and left are pretty crazy. They are wood-like. You can't just knock them off like kicking over a mushroom on the ground. They have to be cut off. (yes, I have taken a few before). Look at the one in the middle. Looks like coral! I haven't seen one like it since. Always looking though.

And while I'm hiking I would be disappointed if I didn't run into some sort of wildlife.

I know what some of you are thinking... "SNAKE!!!!!!" But I have to tell you, that was a cool moment. I watched it climb on that tree for a good five minutes or so. Don't get me wrong, if it went flying across the path I was on it would scare the crap out of me. But in this situation, it was trying to sun itself and it was very cool. It didn't care that I was four feet away watching it.

Now if I REALLY need to recharge my batteries I'll jump in the car and drive to Mooresville NC to go to Lazy 5 Ranch.
Yes, I realize I'm grown. But who cares?? Feeding animals right from the car is pretty darn awesome. They can slobber all over me, I don't care.

The North Carolina Zoo is pretty darn awesome too. I need to go to Lazy 5 and the Zoo in Asheboro at least once a year.

I also need to get out and get on a river. I plan on doing some kayaking and canoeing as soon as it warms up outside.

What inspires you? I'd love to hear from you! You can never have too many ways to feel inspired.

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We want the Funk!- updated 4-19-15

1/18/2015

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Funk Brothers Seed Company seed sacks, that is.... Can you image if your last name was Funk? Either it would be a nightmare in grade school, or if you were coming up in the 70's it would be totally groovy! Either way, the bags that were used back-in-the-day to ship their hybrid corn seeds were SUPER COOL! The company does not exist anymore - after a few generations of mergers and acquisitions it is now owned by Syngenta. But there is no reason why this textile beauty can't live on in a new form :)

The first two bags i made sold immediately (oops!) Had I known that would happen I would have recorded my process on those for this blog. The two that sold were based on the graphics from the back of this bag to the left. Here is how they turned out:

The third bag in this series was going to be different as I no longer had access to the wording shown above. I did decide to go with this same style though. I was getting a little burned out on the messenger/cross-body bags despite their popularity. I used the same types of products to go along with this bag - cargo pants and a men's belt for the handles.
The men's belts can be a little tricky sometimes.

See how that belt has the bump down the middle? Well that makes it hard to sew it perfectly in half. I finally realized that if I would let the ends be staggered, it would actually look more interesting anyway - so that is how I do these now.

I always try to utilize as much hardware from the cargo pants as I can. These tabs actually came from the bottom of the pants. The pants had straps on the inside where you would roll up the bottoms to make them capri length and secure them in place. I was also a little bored with the middle of this piece and tried to come up with something that would give it a little pop. After spending way to much time on it (it was getting out of hand) I took the simple approach and used a piece of a belt in a lighter color. Here's the end result! You will see that the bags look thick, not flimsy at all. I reinforce the materials with fleece so they will be well-structured and strong.

My goodness! Who knew these bags would be so cool. I'm going to need to get my hands on a few more of them. Since this posting I've made a few messenger style (one is currently for sale as of this writing). I thought I'd post up a few pictures for you.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/230415332/vintage-funk-brothers-corn-seed-sack?ref=shop_home_active_1

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Northrup King Vintage Bag - Happy 50th Birthday!

1/10/2015

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What a fantastic surprise when this beauty came in the mail on Friday. I thought it would be the size bag I usually get, but WHOA this thing is HUGE!! with good graphics on the front and the back.
Another added bonus was it still had the original tag attached to it. Once I threw on my reading glass (sigh) I was able to see on the tag that this bag was prepped and shipped in January of 1965. 50 YEARS AGO. How crazy is that? Happy Birthday you pretty bag. Now lets cut you up!!
I hated to remove that tag, but it was very cardboard-y and there was no way to incorporate it into a handbag. I did keep it though :) I will say, the staples that were holding it on were pretty old and gnarly, and I was glad that I am up to date on my tetanus shots....

I knew that I would be able to get two handbags out of this, but it really takes some planning. You make one wrong cut trying to cut out a piece and you've ruined your chances to make two of them because you've cut through fabric you needed for the other. I knew I wanted to see "New York" on a flap. City names are always popular. I also wanted to use the Northrup King logo from the front of the bag. Because both of these were in a hard to get to kinda place it was screwing me up on my other pattern pieces. I finally resigned myself to the fact that although I wanted to make two pleated bags, one would not be able to be. However, the end result still came out great! And luckily I had some cargo pants on hand to do the linings with lots of pockets!

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From the Tobacco barn to fashion

1/3/2015

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Oh Lucky Day!!! My friend Mike was at The ReUse Warehouse in Durham and called to let me know that they had a great stock of burlap fertilizer bags that had been pulled from an old tobacco barn. Oh! By the way if you love reclaimed wood and metal check out Mike's website http://www.mikedulude.com/
So I went down there and got covered in all kinds of filth picking out the best bags. They looked a little rough so I knew i'd have to run them through the washer. Bandit wasn't wild about giving up the bags to the washing machine...and frankly, my dryer wasn't wild about it either.

Having to clean out the lint tray every five minutes was a labor of love people... not to mention the ironing... oh the ironing.. But these bags are worth it!

Since the bags are pretty old I had to really think about which parts I would be able to use. I love that "Camp's" wording but it was too far gone. Little holes are easy to handle with some more burlap and ModPodge though. Of course I zoomed right in on that eagle to be on the flap of my bag. Sweet!

One thing that was super cool about this bag is that this company, Camp's Chemical Corporation, is still in business in Roxboro, NC (and has been for 80 years). I love seeing history in textiles.

I wanted to be sure the bag would be strong despite it's age, so I had to use something to give it some stability. Sewing purists would probably go for interfacing, but I wanted this thing strong. I mean, super duper, "10 lbs of forgotten change in the bottom of your bag and your dog on top" strong. So I actually attached it to some remnant vinyl that I had. This worked out great for this bag too since I made it with pleats and it held them nicely.

Sometimes the hardest decision I have to make in designing a bag is choosing the lining material. I love it when someone opens a bag up and says "OOOOOOOOH!" I do get a little funky with those fabrics sometimes. But this bag needed something a little more subdued, I think. You wouldn't want to open this piece of history and then see some funky new fabric inside. So I went with a basic denim. I did of course put a little pop in the pockets though :) Can't keep the funky completely out of the bag!

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Getting Past Creative Block

We want the Funk!- updated 4-19-15

Northrup King Vintage Bag - Happy 50th Birthday!

From the Tobacco barn to fashion

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