Printing on Fabric

Hello and happy Advent, everyone!

I hope Thanksgiving was lovely (if you celebrated it, I mean). We didn't have snow, which in these parts is a gift. But it was cold, which in these parts is a given, so I shouldn't complain - or even be surprised, I guess. We have our Christmas tree up now, the cats have happily claimed the tree skirt as their own, the oldest child has returned to the Uni, the two younger children are transitioning to a new semester and its accompanying new teachers, and that's where we are now. Speaking of transitioning, I never feel as if I'm ready for the Great Whiteout. Winterizing the house and yard aside, there's also the mental and emotional adjustment to the shorter days and earlier sunsets, the extra hours I seem to spend driving in the dark on even the simplest of errands, the turning inward and indoor-ward, the subconscious focus on food and feeding those at home (particularly as the holidays draw nigh). It's just the natural cycle of things, I tell myself; it's supposed to feel unfamiliar. After all, I didn't grow up experiencing the four seasons; in Singapore we only ever had the consistent humidity, and the monsoons when the old year surrendered to the new.

Still, it is always lovely to leave behind the mania of summer and all its frenetic  activity, especially since also means returning indoors to more making and creating. Late in the summer, as I was preparing to send Emily off to college, I sensed a familiar restlessness - the sort that comes upon you when you're transitioning and feel a tad lost and are then overcome with the ridiculous desire to reinvent yourself by learning something new. So I started Spanish "lessons" on an app. Dad and I had always loved the musicality of the language, and he'd begun learning it from CDs decades earlier, so I figured I'd continue doing that. I also started looking into learning to print on fabric - what fun, I thought, to be able to introduce detail to fabric that wasn't piecing or texture. When Emily heard about it, she wanted to learn it, too, so I found a class and signed us both up. And in the days after she'd left home, I found myself looking forward to it on two counts: one, because learning is always exciting, and two, to reconnect with my daughter to do something artistic together in the midst of all that was changing.

So here we are - both of us super-exhausted after a full day of classes at Uni (her) and the running of a household of still-at-home-teenagers (me). 

The class was held at the Textile Center in downtown Minneapolis. Katrina, our instructor, taught us systematically how to lay the wooden blocks on cotton fabric stretched taut with pins, 

 

then add borders, 

and color fills. 

She provided all the supplies - the wooden blocks were her own, and the inks were silkscreen paint watered to a workable consistency.

I will say that I'd been hoping to learn the woodcarving aspect as well, because the point had been to be able to design my own prints at home eventually, but it wasn't the focus of the class. The blocks, our instructor explained, were hand-carved in India, where she'd learned the craft. At the top left corner of the next photo are four Scandinavian-style flower blocks I'd immediately fallen in love with, which made  appearances in almost all my projects.

We worked for 3 hours, at the end of which we each chose a project to showcase all the things we'd learned. I picked a bag (of course I did).

When you've worked with prints and colors long enough, you become somewhat particular about shades and combinations because some part of your brain has rules for what color goes with what and what looks off, even if it's just a smidgen too cool, or too warm. In this tote, for instance, let's just say that I loved some of the colors together more than others, and when it was finished, I stood there, aghast, but it was too late to redo the whole thing so I let it be. 

Katrina let us bring our own things to print on if we wanted to, so in the last 5 minutes of the class, I worked on some canvas bag pieces I'd cut out the night before. Emily did a border print on the straps. I loved this color combination much more than the previous one.

And I finally assembled it all a few weeks ago.

Here it is, inside-out, to show you the lining.

It was so much fun to make, and I foresee many more print-and-sew projects in the near future.

But I would love for this beautiful bag to find a new home, so I've (finally!) put it the shop. Please stop by to check it out there.

I have one more post planned before Christmas - a game I made for my 3-year-old nephew. Fingers crossed that I'll find the time to squeeze it in before then, but in case I don't, let me wish you all now: a lovely, restful, joyful Christmas and new year!

A tiny new bag

Hello, friends! 

It's November! Somehow, summer happened and I don't remember a whole lot of it, honestly. So much has happened this year. Emily graduated from high school, and I sewed a prom dress and threw a grad party and got all emotional. Kate started a new late-summer job at the water park. The high school swim and dive season resumed in August and our days were non-stop shuttling to and from the pool and daily mounds of towels in the laundry. And we moved Emily into her new place at her Uni which, funnily enough, was the same apartment I stayed at when I first came to Minnesota 21 years ago to go to grad school. Very full-circle. 

It surprised me how physical it was, moving and setting up new digs, even if it was just a fraction of the size of a regular house and just 30 mins from home. We did a late night grocery run to stock her fridge after a quiet dinner together at the end of the day. You know the kind - you're working hard and you forget the time and suddenly the sun's set and you realize you should probably have dinner, so you drive out into an unfamiliar neighborhood and find a random sandwich place and it's only after you've sat down to eat that you feel the weight of the day and the looming goodbye settle on you. I bawled all the way home but I was so proud of my kid for doing this on her own, and so grateful that she was excited for instead of petrified of the transition. 

And just like that, the house was quieter and there was more bathroom counter space and we had to reorganize the laundry roster and learn to cook less food because there were just four of us now. I'm not an empty nester by any means, but it was an adjustment, nonetheless. My neighbor, who herself sent off three kids to college, said, "The first one is the hardest because it's the one that makes your family no longer intact." I also know of many other moms who'd beg to differ, and who'd swear that it's the youngest that's the most devastating because it's the last one that strips you of those those caretaking responsibilities which have been your identity for so many years. And there will be yet others who will say it's the second one, or the fourth, because that's the one who was the kindest to the dog, or the one who always remembered to buy the milk, or the one who tended to check in regularly so you never had to guess where they were. At the end of the day, we all agree on this: it's momentous when a kid leaves home. Particularly when it's not something you've grown up being used to - nobody leaves home at 18 in Singapore. Where would they go? It's a tiny island with a very finite number of tertiary institutions and everyone transitions from childhood to adulthood alongside their parents, and the caregiving shifts direction ever so subtly and evolves organically and in-person.

But I survived. And we're creating new patterns and logistics in how we continue to love each other. And what a blessing that she's only 30 minutes away and there are always convenient reasons to come home every other weekend, or stop by the apartment or campus. Any continuity from her old life helps, too. Like her music: earlier this month, my husband and I attended a couple of concerts to hear her play - new stage, new orchestra- and band-mates, but same kid, same trombone, and the same music that had always brought her so much joy. She was back home for homecoming to help take pictures of her sisters, stopped in at Sections last week to watch Kate swim, and two weekends ago, all three girls and I went to a rock concert. There were other random occasions, too - a week after she'd moved out,  we attended a fabric printing class together, just for fun. There's a separate post about that coming, but I wanted to mention that here because we'd signed up for that before she'd left home so we could have something artsy to look forward to after.

Which brings me to this bag (at last, I hear you say). I needed a new bag for so many reasons. For one, I'd had my old bag for more than six years and thought I should downsize, now that I no longer need to cart around all kinds of Motherphernalia. For another, I wanted to sew bags again. I should clarify: I always want to sew bags, but my kid had just left home and where other people might, say, eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's to cope, I sew receptacles. Summary: I was subconsciously looking for a reinvention, and my old bag was on its way out. Voila.

So here it is - my new much-smaller shoulder bag. Still upholstery suede, though, because that fabric lasts forever and doesn't show wear at all. That six-year-old bag I was telling you about? Still looks new on the outside, although the cotton lining is definitely worn.

I'm still sewing my straps the borderline-obsessive way.

Here's the strap anchor. It's a bit of work to attach externally instead of in-seam between the outer and lining layers of the bag, but I wanted to be fancy, so serves me right.

Here it is, inside-out. The lining is some real South-East Asian batik, probably Indonesian. 

While we're on the subject, I've always thought the tie-dye batiks we get here in American fabric stores were too fadey. In fact, I almost didn't believe they were batiks when I first came here to the US, because growing up in Singapore, batiks had been synonymous with vibrant fabrics like these. 

End of detour. This is the strap with a lobster claw, which I put in all my shoulder bags, to which to attach key rings. Saves me the trouble of digging for mine amongst all the other junk in my bags - I just feel for the strap instead, and pull out the keys.

An inside shot to show you one of the two inner pockets. You can see them more clearly in the first batik-side-out picture above. 

A couple of WIP shots next. You can see the pocket laying across the middle seam of the project - it's kinda like one of those spot-the-hidden-object pictures. Also wanted to show you that my fabric edges don't always line up in the construction process - see the two unmatching lower edges for what I mean. What's more critical (to me, anyway) is how the fabric piecing aligns at the seam, and sometimes, precision in other places has to give. All that irregularity disappears into the base seam anyway, so it's still all good.

What was the point of this next picture? No clue, sorry. This is what happens when you take photos and don't post them till months after. Maybe it was to show that curvy seam and the edge-stitching? Huh. Let's say that's it. Moving on, now!

Final shot of Fleur modeling the bag to give you an idea of its size. Okay, it's not really tiny like the title claims - it's just more compact and current than my old one was. Fleur does a lot of modeling for me these days now that the kids are hardly home to pose for me. And I am horrible at selfies and finding appropriate mirrors for taking selfies. So it's a good thing I have a body double. Plus, unlike the kids, she never fidgets.

I might have a couple of these bags to put in the store for the holidays. One of them is a fun variation - will share pictures in the next post. 

Early wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone! Feast with abandon, enjoy your loved ones, and -id you're traveling - be safe on the roads (and air)!

Wallets in the Shop!

I am excited to announce my Etsy store is now stocked with my handmade wallets!

I made a bunch of them this summer, just for fun. Wallets are quite possibly my favorite thing to sew, even more than bags, I think. I've been using these wallet since I can't remember when. Like when I was in college, I think, although I only started documenting them on the blog about 13 years ago. It's crazy to think I've been blogging at least that long, but even crazier that I've been making wallets since I was barely out of my teen years.  

You'll be able to spot a couple in my Orla Kiely fabric in the photos - I made them as spares for when my current one wears out, although  it'll be some years yet, because these wallets last a long, long time. They're made with 600-denier polyester packcloth and covered with accent fabric, then edge-bound all around. I need them to be pretty sturdy because I tend to not be gentle when I use a wallet. I mean, they're not like bags or clothes - you're opening and shutting them about 50 times a day, after all, paying for coffee and groceries or handing bills to the kids to fund some school activity or other.  

Anyway. Here's the lot I've put in the store for you. 

I thought I'd specifically point out that there are two designs.

This is the first - and for simplicity's sake, I'm calling this Wallet A.

Here's a reference photo for size. They're 4" x 4.5" closed, and they fasten shut with an invisible magnetic snap.

Their dimensions when open are 11" x 4.5" - and see, the snap fastener really is invisible.

This design has 13 compartments, including a hinged section with a clear vinyl pocket on one side, a  solid accent pocket on the other,

and a zippered compartment between them.

Here's that same wallet in a different fabric combination of blue and yellow stylized poppies. There are two sections for bills (and receipts), six slots for credit cards, and a seventh, slightly deeper pocket.

Outside on the back is a pleated zippered pocket for coins.

This one has white florals on indigo-navy and lemon yellow backgrounds. 

Here's a short video tour of Wallet A:

Here's the second design (which I've called Wallet B).

It's 5" x 4.5" when closed, so a teeny bit bigger than Wallet A.

This design fastens shut with a regular magnetic snap.

It has 14 compartments, including three internal multi-purpose pockets, six credit card sections, two zippered compartments,

two sections for bills,

and a large external pocket on the back.

I'm slightly sentimental about that middle zippered pocket, incidentally. Decades ago, I sewed my brother a wallet, which he got to custom-design. Among the features he'd asked for was a shallow-ish pocket for his guitar picks so he always had spares on hand. This zippered pocket reminds me so much of that. 

Here's a video of Wallet B in action.

These wallets are in the shop now. Since putting together this post, the leftmost one in the bottom row has been bought, but the others are still available. Get a head start on your holiday shopping and grab your favorites while they last!