Mom's purse is done

Here is the front with the button she selected from my friend Lisa at http://www.lisapetersart.com/.

and here is the back with the flap open.

Zippered Seaside pouch is done!

I added beads and stitched the sides of the seaside piece I worked on Friday, then hand stitched it to the zippered pouch at the top edge. The pouch is 7.5 x 5 inches. Added a little felty thing to the zipper tab and it is ready to use.

Purse, getting closer

Here are pics of the purse fabric after some tulle and yarn. The lining has black with oranges and reds, purples and blues and parts of it show thru the holes where I melted the felt, adding bits of color. I think I will add more machine stitching in those colors and maybe some metallic hand stitching too. I decided the gold mesh in my original stash is too jarring. The buttons are from my friend Lisa http://www.lisapetersart.com/, these pictures do not do them justice. Lisa makes the most amazing raku beads and buttons!

This is the purse folded. I want to add any additional stitches or embellishments while it is still flat, including velcro for the closure. When I am totally done I will stitch the edges together and let mom pick her button. More pictures when I finish.

ok, now I have to wait, I stitched more yarns and a couple of felt beads on the back, then decided to swipe some shiva paintstiks across areas. I did that yesterday but didn't let them set, all the handling of the felt and alot of it rubbed off. So i will wait 24 hours before stitch the side together (maybe adding a few beads 1st). Luckily, the tulle shapes are not as prominent in real life, I think the camera pics it up. On the purse they are more blended.

and here is the back, just folded still

Purse in Process

I am making my mom a purse for a couple of weddings she is going to soon. I started with black felt, lace, some black with a little sheen, some gold fabric and some yarns. I ended up not
using half of these, but this is how I usually start.

I tried some shiva painstiks on the lace and some of the other black fabric and extra black felt.

I added a lining , pinned parts on top and tried to use the embellisher to attach them.
Some of the pieces did not hold well so I stitched thru everything


At this point of the process I was very disappointed. After this photo I took my heat gun to the whole piece, added some sparkly tulle and yarns and it is getting better. I need to add some stitching, maybe a few beads. I will try to take more pics and show you the finished purse tomorrow when I finish it.

Friday and stitching

After a stressful week, I was so glad Friday finally came. When I got home from work I grabbed some painted felt and started stitching. I added some lace, tyvek, lutradur, some french knots and those little wheelie stitches. I tried, unsuccessfully, to do some bullion knots, aack, I can't get the hang of it but I didn't have milliner needles so that didn't help. So I covered most of those knots with bubbled cellophane. The color is kind of washed out in these photos, the fabric is like my serenity angel. Tomorrow I will fold this around a purchased canvas case (7.5 x 4") that has a zipper.

Tomorrow I clean house - ugh, then maybe I can play some more...

Serenity Angel and Sam's angel for mom

This weekend I finished my Serenity angel. I used my hand painted and distressed cloth, I really love working with this cloth. After finally getting the body shape I wanted, I added lots of yarns and stitches.

My nephew Sam is a talented artist and creates amazing drawings. He decided to play around with some of my orange painted felt. He created a wonderful angel for my mom, who has been dealing with thyroid cancer this summer, so she is mom's angel of hope.

All my fussing with Serenity's body, and Sam sits down to make his angel with cloth and just starts cutting pieces of fabric and layers them and makes the wings, voila!

I had so much fun making Serenity I think I will make more, maybe one for each of the seasons or for the elements. And think how grand she would look atop a christmas tree.