Custom order round up

The sad thing about Etsy is that you don't have a way to display the final products for custom orders. I had a few custom orders lately that I wanted to share.
First, the finished product from my last post. The inside is also embroidered with the bride's name and wedding date. I won't go into the complications involved with my embroidery machine, but let's just say it was quite the feat for me!

Next is actually not a custom purse, it was an experimental one. I saw a throw pillow at the store that inspired this purse. It ended up being quite complicated and with the crooked sewing lines, etc, I decided not to sell this one. I used a slightly dented frame too. Not sure what I'll do with this one, but it's fun to look at! I don't know if I want to make another one like this; it's quite time-intensive.

This last purse is another bridal order. The front pintuck purse was one already in my shop, and the bride wanted the two woven purses in the back. I made them out of the same crepe-back satin that the first purse was made of, and I found a lovely grey moleskin fabric for the insides. It's super soft to the touch.

So there's the custom order round-up!

Experiments in Fabric Dyeing

I had a bride request me to make her a bag like this one which is in my shop banner.
Well, this bag was a one of a kind bag, so I couldn't do the same thing again, but I was able to customize it for her wedding colors. She asked me if I could make this bag in yellow. Well, truthfully, this fabric only comes in white. But I didn't let that stop me. I said, "Sure!" I ordered more, picked up some fabric dye, and proceeded to try my hand at dyeing fabrics for the first time.

I used my washing machine and RIT dye. I've heard that RIT dye doesn't do vibrant colors very well, but the bride wants pastel yellow, so I figured it wouldn't be a problem. I was worried it would dye too dark, so my backup was to use tea to lighten the color if necessary. I've seen other people do that.

Well, the first watch ended up quite dark. Definitely not pastel! So I decided to only use a capful of dye with the second piece of fabric. Much better!

And to see the difference:

The bride's colors are yellow and gray, so we picked out a flower together on Etsy. My expertise with flowers consists of circles of fabric with singed edges and a button on top, so I thought we'd pick up something more fun.

It's not the finished product, but I think this gives a good idea of what the purse will look like. I'm definitely happy with it! And this opens the door to other personalized purses.

New "studio"

I completely ran out of room with my previous sewing area configuration. When you first walked into our apartment, my sewing stuff took up the entire wall right next to the entrance. So last Saturday I went to Target, picked up another set of cube storage shelves, some metal storage shelves, and then a few night ago I picked up the board to create my new cutting/work table. I moved all the living room furniture to one side of the room, and all my sewing stuff to the other side.
I still need to paint the board, but otherwise my sewing nook is now finished!

This little table was previously where I cut out everything. Now it's my shipping area and place to store works in progress. It also is my new little photo area.

I'm so happy I bought these wire shelves too. All this stuff was stacked haphazardly before or stuffed into corners.

And the really nice thing about this table is that I can store things underneath it too. It has two rolling storage shelves for patterns and other various things. My old sewing machine and embroidery attachment are under there too. That back shelf has mostly my fabric scraps, but also leather and old clothes for upcycling purposes.

I also bought myself a white board for my to-do list. The left hand side is for my shop, the right hand side is non-shop stuff.

And here is my oldest, who loves my new sewing room, as she calls it. She also is happy that there is just enough room under the cutting table for her to walk under.

I also fit all my inventory into another set of shelves, but it is getting quite squishy. I'll need to find more space to store purses because I'm intending on increasing my inventory this month to over 100 items in preparation for the holidays!

Indian-inspired bridal clutches

I had a lovely bride contact me about making her a set of bridesmaid clutches similar to the pink clutch below: (sorry for the blurry pic, my photos before a certain date aren't available anymore)

The above clutch uses a fun polyester sari-inspired design. It was discontinued shortly after I made the purse. I have really bad luck with using unique fabrics that end up being discontinued! I suggested that we look for actual purple and gold saris, and quickly found the perfect sari being sold on Etsy. Several weeks later, once I sent back the wrong sari and received the correct one, I have finished the purses.

The inside is a gold satin. You'll notice a tag on the inside of the flap; the bride wanted a personalized note that was beyond the capability of my embroidery machine, so we found a shop on Etsy that does very affordable personalized embroidery tags. I attached them to the inside flap.

I love working with brides or anyone interested in custom orders! Our combined ideas are much better than the ones I come up with myself. I may not have come up with the idea of buying an actual sari before she requested these purses. And didn't they turn out great!

Inspiration Item: Indian Cottons

Sometimes I know what I'm going to do with an item when I buy it. Sometimes the item inspires an idea when I see it. Sometimes I have no idea but I know I have to have it and will figure out what to do with it later!

These cottons from India were like that. I didn't know what I would do with them, but I snatched them up back in February or March and waited with baited breath for three weeks until they arrived. Then I looked at them a bit, realized I had no clue what to do with them, and stuck them with the rest of my fabric.
Eventually I decided to create a patchwork purse out of all five fabrics, and since they all have the common gold accent, I used gold metallic thread and a bunch of fancy stitches to stitch between each section.

Eventually I made a wallet just like that.

And I decided that I needed to make something that showed off the gold stripe, so I made another wallet.

These wallets are actually sold but I will be making more just like them soon.

In Progress: Woven Loop Purse, Messenger Bag, and High Heel Purse

At any given time I have multiple items in progress. I like to work assembly line style and so I often will cut out five or ten purses or wallets, then spend a few nights interfacing them, and then sew them at my leisure. I thought I would take snapshots of a few in progress purses.

First: Purple Woven Loops.
This complicated and time-intensive little beast was directly inspired by a ribbon throw pillow I encountered the other day while looking for new bedding. It was so fun to run my hands across the little loops, and I immediately started dissecting it in my mind to figure out how I would make it. However, neither my husband nor I care for throw pillows, so the next thought was, "How can I make this into a purse?"

Hopefully this little mess of loops will end up as cute as that little pillow.

Next up: Tweed Messenger Bag

This bag has been in my head and on my list of things to do for a loooong time! I've been held up by many factors, the main one being that I was afraid to work with leather. But finally I loaded up on nylon thread, a teflon foot, and lots of patience, and started working.

There will be more leather accents and the bottom has leather.

Final purse: High Heels and Leather Purse

Speaking of leather, here is another purse that has been in the works for some time. This one came together beautifully; it's currently just waiting on some better studs because the ones in the picture had trouble fastening, so I ordered a different type.

This purse will have an internal tube frame, which will be a first for me.

Of course there are many other purses I have been working on but these are all new styles and especially fun.

Behind the Bag: Asymmetrical Studded Purse

Location of first inspiration: King of Prussia Mall
Trigger: A studded leather handbag
Process of thought: I have no memory of what the rest of the handbag looked like, I was just enamoured of the studs all over the bag in a random pattern. I pointed it out to my husband and said, "That is so cool!" Then as I went home the ideas swirled around for awhile until I decided that not only would it be cool to use studs on a bag, it would be raised to even more heights of awesome if I used them in a recognizable pattern. Maybe the recent episodes of Doctor Who that we've been watching inspired me to choose Van Gogh's Starry Night, who knows, but that was the scene I chose.
The asymmetrical design was an added touch of whimsy.

I did ponder for awhile which way to make the design face, but ultimately decided that since I am a righty with my purses, I would make it that way.