My First Woven Bag!

Remember this project? Well, a couple weeks ago I turned the tapestry into a bag.

I started with a piece that, once off the loom, looked like this:


Then I bought some fabric from a very helpful lady at one of many fabric stores in the fashion district in Midtown, and sewed the fabric onto the tapestry as an inside lining for the bag.


Then I folded the tapestry up onto itself to create a front, back, and front flap. I then attached a button to the front, which would get a corresponding loop on the front flap for closure.


For the strap, I took leftover yarn from the same skein I used for the bag and braided it together.


I then attached the completed strap to the body of the bag using leftover yarn from the same skein.


Here is the bag with the open flap. You can see the loop that is used as a closure for the button attached to the body of the bag.


Here is the front of the finished bag. I love how these colors work together!


Here's the back of the finished bag. It worked out nicely that the front of the bag and the flap of the bag had similar color tones, and the back of the bag has some different but very pretty lighter variations.


And this is the end result!


It was a lot of work, and there was a bunch of trial and effort, but it was worth it. I'm really proud of this piece-- my first project on my tapestry loom and the first bag I've made out of woven materials since I was in college. I plan on making more, so you may see some similar ones on the blog soon.

What's Warped Now: Wine-Colored Tapestry

This week, I'm back on the tapestry loom doing something similar to what I did the first time around, only with a more natural color palette that kind of reminds me of the colors of wine.



The last one of these I finished, I made into a bag. My plan is to do the same with this one. I have some photos of my bag-making process for the other one, so I'll be sure to post those soon. Until then, I hope you're enjoying these weekly updates!

What's Warped Now: Pink and White Scarf

This time, I'm back on my Cricket loom with a pink and white scarf. After working on a few other projects, I had some pink and pink-and-white variegated yarn left over. Though I love to buy new yarn pretty much all the time-- even when I don't need to-- sometimes I use my leftovers to create new projects. This is one of them: a simple plain weave scarf with varied warp threads and a loosely-beaten weft.



And I've even got leftovers from my leftovers from this project, so you may see another project like this again.

Bonus: My other scarf with a combination of pink and white (and brown) was chosen as part of the Dripping in Chocolate Treasury on Etsy. Check it out!

The Gift of Scarves

When I first started weaving, I made my good friend Allie a scarf:



Her dad saw the scarf and requested one of his own, which turned out to be this scarf.

When the holidays came around, Allie asked that I make one for her fiance Joey. She wanted something grey to match his coat, and something blue to match his eyes. I weaved a houndstooth pattern out of a wool/acrylic blend. He just got it today (I know it was a holiday gift, but I am a bum) and they sent me a picture of a very dashing young man in a very stately scarf:



Thanks to Allie and Joey for being so awesome and supportive of my scarf-ness! (And if any other of my readers would like to be equally supportive, I love custom projects!)

What's Warped Now: Sunset Tapestry

New year, new segment: What's Warped Now will be a weekly update about a current project. This will help keep my updating often and consistent, but more importantly it'll keep me weaving often.

For Christmas, I was lucky enough to receive a tapestry loom. I'm excited about it because it's a new format for me, so I can do a bunch of different kinds of projects: bags, wall hangings, placemats, etc. After experimenting with the pattern that was included in my little tapestry loom kit, I saw this really funky, beautiful wool that reminded me of a sunset. So I decided to give it a try and see how it turned out. So far I'm loving these colors. I don't know what I'll make out of it yet-- maybe just a simple wall hanging.



That's it for this week. What's Warped Now will be back next week with a new project, so see you then!

A Very Crafty 2012

Hey all! It's been a few weeks since my last post and a lot has happened, so I'm just going to list and link:

• For the holidays, I got a new camera, a book on rigid heddle weaving, and a tapestry loom, which means I can weave all kinds of cool new stuff and then take great photographs!

• I made a bunch of custom scarves as holiday gifts. Hopefully I can get some pictures in the coming weeks of the recipients with their scarves.

• I updated my Etsy shop with new listings!

• One of my new items has been added to a treasury on Etsy!

• Lion Brand Yarn Studio near Union Square is starting a new group for rigid heddle weavers. If you're a rigid heddle weaver (like me) check it out-- their first meeting is this Thursday evening from 6-8 p.m.

• Three words: Handmade Ryan Gosling.

• And of course, because I always like to include a photo, here's a photo of the item listed on the Grape and Tangerine treasury:

Craft Fair Recap

Over the past month or so, I participated in two craft fairs: one in Park Slope, and one on Franklin Avenue in my own neighborhood. Though I didn't sell much myself, I did get to meet a lot of other really cool vendors, and for me a lot of the experience of craft fairs is talking to other vendors about their work and how they sell.


At the Park Slope craft fair, I shared a table with Annie of Brooklyn Owl. She makes adorable felt hair pins, earrings and other accessories in the shape of owls (hence her business's name), flowers, bees, cats and seahorses, to name a few. On either side of us was eco-friendly jeweler Lori of A 1000 Kisses, and Precious Pieces (sorry, no link, but I loved her pillows-- the artist designed the fabric herself!)



There were a lot of neat vendors at the Built in Brooklyn craft fair on Franklin Ave, too. If you're into vintage, check out Prints and Pleats Vintage. There were a few great jewelers there, and my favorite was Melody's Addiction. She uses all kinds of things, not just metal, to create her jewelry, like fabric, leather, feathers and shells.

Bonus! Early December's Built in Brooklyn was featured on local Brooklyn Blog I Love Franklin Ave.

There's another Built in Brooklyn coming up tomorrow, same time and place as last time (12-6 p.m., Launchpad on Franklin Avenue.) I won't be vending, but my friend and fellow yarn-crafter Elizabeth of woolendiversions will be. (She makes awesome hats! Including, for all you Harry Potter fans, hats in the colors of the Hogwarts houses.)

As for me, I won't be doing any craft fairs again until around early spring, at which time I hope to have more in my repertoire besides scarves. But everything I didn't sell at my fairs will very soon be up on my Etsy shop, so if you're interested please check back often!