Weekending…

  Life has settled into a nice balance of dyeing on my week-day off and winding/shipping on Saturday, which has afforded me the time for some new creating on Sundays when we are home.  It's nice to have new ideas floating around my head again instead of just trying to keep afloat.

I bought this machine some time ago wanting to try my hand at sewing leather.  It's an old machine that sometimes has a mind of it's own in how fast it wants to go, but it's been fun learning how to find it's rhythm.  I definitely have to pay attention when I am using her or I could find my finger sewn…yikes!

In making this bag I have learned a number of things, one of which has been setting double capped rivets  They are not only decorative, but they give the straps the are set in between the lining and the outside some stability.
You know me, I am all about the tools and I have found a die press to be such a nice way to set rivets.

This next tool was a tool of necessity.  I knew I wanted leather straps for my bags, but I just couldn't find them easily on the big wide world web, so I learned out to make my own from a side of leather using this simple but sharp little strap cutter.
I spent an entire 2 weeks cutting straps over the summer.  I have enough straps to last me into eternity…just sayin'

Normally, I fly through things and usually end up making mistakes that I have to backtrack to fix, but this time I forced myself to go slow as I was creating this pattern myself.  I took the time to carefully iron and sew the various stabilizers and I was painstakingly careful in my stitching as leather is expensive and you only get one shot at sewing it, because you can't erase those stitch holes in leather.

As a dyer of many colors when I am working with fabric that someone else has created, one of the things that I love most is putting colors that you would not necessarily expect to go together in a project.  I love the brightness of the lime green against the classic black and gray paisley.  It's a fun combination.

It was nice to have a semi lazy weekend at home to spend time creating new things.
I am pretty sure that there will be more of these bags in the near future. 😉