Vogue 8823, the Cobalt Bling bag

 The above pic was taken at 5:30 this morning. I couldn't sleep, grabbed my coffee and started painting, still in my jammies! I couldn't wait to get moving on this project and it did make for a quiet morning meditation. I am making Vogue 8823, a Marcy Tilton bag design. I will be doing View G. Some of the views are incredibly huge but this view really is a simple tote, or at least it was before I got my hands on it. The bottom band will be a faux leather as will the strap and tabs. All sorts of other options  were auditioned. but my artist friend, without knowing my decision , picked the faux leather as well. The rest of the bag will be made from heavy bull denim in an off white. I've painted/stenciled the center panel and the top panel will be just the plain  off white denim. The line drawing  for view G helps explain this a little better.

I won't be following the directions. They have you put in the zipper once the bag is constructed, sides and all. The pattern tells you to do one side at a time, once thee bag is all constructed. I don't know. You would be working on the whole bag under the presser foot while putting in the zipper, very very bulky work and looking very prone to error. The other issue with this design is that the lining is laid on the flat bag before sewing up the sides and zipper. Then you are instructed to sew the sides and corners on the serger, not quite like the lining I envision for this. So I will be making a separately hanging lining that will simply drop in. I'll hand stitch it in around the top if necessary but I am hoping some simple top stitching may do the trick. Fingers crossed here.

Here are my supplies for the artwork and fabrics.

At this point the painting is all done. It was not complicated. I've stencilled a lot of fabric back in the day but this was not quite such an artistic endeavor. All I wanted was to have a design in a saturated cobalt blue and I've achieved that with these paints. They are Americana acrylic paints in "ultramarine blue". The stenciling style I usually use is much more painterly. I like to softly blend and shade various colors with layering. It's a very pretty soft effect but I wasn't going for that look here.This time I wanted bold, saturated color and it was simply a matter of painting on the one color in all the cut out spaces. The firmness of the stencil brush makes sure you get paint into all the nooks and crannies. the stencil has frog tape on it so it stays in place while painting. It really was quite easy.

I will let these two pieces dry 24 hours, overnight, and tomorrow will treat them to be permanent. The way I do that is to make a mix of half water and half white vinegar. I soak a cotton press cloth in the vinegar mixture and wring it out. I then Put a towel down on the ironing board, one that I won't mind ruining. On top of the towel will go the two stencilled pieces. Then the vinegar soaked cloth is placed on top. The iron is set to cotton, no steam and pressed until the vinegar cloth is bone dry. Soak the cloth again in the vinegar mixture and iron dry over and over until all sections of the pieces have been treated. I haven't done this with heavily painted saturated color like this so fingers crossed. The technique has worked well on more traditional stenciling I have done. We shall see!

********************************

Today is the first warm weather here since last fall. My husband and I worked outside today and it was wonderful. I lasted until my side started to really complain about my gardening activity. I definitely quit at that sign and went back to the sewing cave for the rest of the afternoon. I'll see if I can get a little more gardening and sewing done tomorrow. It is just a sin to stay inside on such a glorious day. Tomorrow I also have to do a "field trip" to take some photos for the digital photography class I am taking. We have homework each week! He's a great teacher and I am learning a lot. I can't wait till we get into analyzing our photos with him and he knows I want to concentrate on macro shots, the better to show details here on the blog. 

*******************************************

You know that skirt I wrote about last week? I do love it. The last time I wore it the waist was huge. What the heck happened? It didn't stretch out as it was all taped to prevent that and well interfaced. I have to take two whole  inches out of the waist now. Luckily I put a seam in the back waistband so it should be pretty easy. But what happened? Well, my BFF figured it out. She said my stomach was swollen from the kitchen island attack and now the swelling is down. Duh,,,,,,,, I guess that's a good sign!............Bunny