Dragon Bag

After my post on Tuesday.. and having caught up with the blogs I read - and finding inspiration there :)  I got down to experimenting, and playing with my new fibres (all merino in lovely deep wintery colours.. blue/black, blue/purple, deep red, juniper green, rich mustardy gold).

I have a range of Celtic inspired bags in my mind.. they have been there for a while, but I finally started sketching a couple of weeks ago.  Actually visiting Glastonbury got me moving with them..  Well one of the bags is a Dragon Bag, what I couldnt decide with this one is what SHAPE the bag should be.

Reading Heathers blog on Tuesday.. in particular the Green Bag posts it clicked into place.  SO, very much inspired by Heathers beautiful bag, I set to work.  It was a dark, miserable day and I had the light on all day while I was working.. I did take photos and am really pleased that they are OK to post. 

Resists for integral pockets. You can't see it, but the first thing I did was lay whisps of mustard coloured fibre where the pockets would be, so I now where to cut the resists out when its felted.

Mixed colours on the back.  I had a couple of layers of solid blue/black beneeth the colours.. I like the way it mutes the colours and brings them together.

Wetted the fibres on the front before putting the dragon on.  I had cut the body and wing shapes from acid green silk chiffon and laid this down first, then whisps of green merino, finished with pistachio green tussah silk fibre.

Removing the pocket resists part way through

Felted.  You can sort of see the resist behind it.. its shrunk by 1/3
 - which is what I expected as it was laid out pretty thickly

Next day I started pinning and sewing decorative ridges to emphasis the shape of the bag

I used my darning foot to freemotion around the dragon.
I had debated whether to machine or hand stitch around him.. went with the machine because I like the extra dimension it gives felt.  Didn't turn out quite the effect I wanted though..

So I am hand stitching OVER the machine stitching.. the felt is still pulled in by the machine stitch, the hand stitching is hopefully adding a little more definition.

I haven't finished the bag yet, so I'm breaking it down into 3 posts.. next time I'll show you the button I made today :)

As promised...

This is my new bag, that I finished making yesterday!

I was inspired by the lovely bags that Heather at Wool Love Functional Fibre Art made & blogged about a couple of months ago... at around the same time I felted a big flat piece, trying out my goodies from the Reenactors Market. I decided at the time that it was going to become a bag... but Ive only just gotten around to actually putting it together!

First of all I had to find just the right leather belt for the handles... a few weeks scouring local charity shops got that sorted, its a nice well worn brown leather one - about 1 3/4" wide; I cut it with a stanley knife down the length to make 2 handles. I didnt cut all the way to either end though, which made it easier to sew on (with my leather needle in my sewing machine).

And then there was the lining. Eventually I found a lovely piece of fabric while mooching through my moms stash; its from one of my nans dresses - not sure exactly how old it is, but I think its safe to say its vintage :o)

It has a nice zippy compartment & strong magnetic snap fastner

Today, Im dyeing a silk lap, impatiently checking whether the silk I dyed earlier this weeks dry yet...no! And photographing & preparing supply listings.

Have a good weekend folks - whatever you are doing... Im working at a pirate event on Sunday :o)

x