Handbag Designer 101

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Linda Matthews

As much as I’m loving my Kindle, there’s nothing quite like the anticipation of waiting for a *real* book to arrive in the mail.

So as a handbag lover and designer, I was kind of impatient waiting for this new book to arrive.

Handbag Designer 101
by Emily Blumenthal

Handbag Designer 101 is subtitled “Everything You Need to Know About Designing, Making, and Marketing Handbags” and I wasn’t disappointed. There is a lot of great information in this book about the construction and design of handbags, as well as instructions and patterns for making fifteen common handbag styles including totes, bags with zipper closures, bags with frame closures, and even a briefcase. It’s worth noting though that the instructions and diagrams are quite basic so if you’ve had no experience making handbags, you might find them a little difficult to follow.

As well as design and construction, the book also includes information on how to go about setting up a business as a professional handbag maker and designer, and includes information about making samples, how to find overseas manufactures, and of course marketing.

The information in the book is very comprehensive and if you’re seriously considering going into business as a handbag designer, this book covers everything you’ll need to get started.

Even if you’re not planning to go into business, the book is still a wealth of information particularly with regards to the construction of handbags and includes lots of photos of designer handbags for inspiration.

The author Emily Blumenthal also has a great website called (what else?) Handbag Designer 101 so head over and pay a visit.

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Enjoying the process

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Linda Matthews

As you know, I recently began a new art bag. You can see the preparation of the samples here.

I find that once the samples are prepared and the technique is fine-tuned, and all the bits and pieces are assembled, it’s amazing how fast things go together and how smoothly the process progresses. And of course when the process goes smoothly, it’s always enjoyable.

What do you think of this fabric for the lining? I LOVE the contrast in colors.

Painted Texture

The highlighted texture on the bottom panel.

Painted Texture

Highlighting the texture on the side panels. It’s amazing what a difference the highlighting makes!

Painted Texture

Attaching the cording to finish the edges.

Painted Texture

It’s almost done! At this rate I should be finished later today.

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Who Is This Inner Critic . . .

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Linda Matthews

. . . And What The Heck Is It Doing Living Inside My Head?

Inner Critic

By Chris Zydel

I came across a startling statistic recently, which is that more than 90% of all children consider themselves to be creative yet only 10% of adults see themselves as having any creative capacity.

So what happened? How do so many of us lose our connection with the basic truth that we are all born creative and that it’s not meant to just go away once we get our adult badge?

Have you ever noticed that there is a voice inside of you, constantly on patrol, which is advising you to not trust or believe in yourself? Telling you, over and over, that you are not good enough, talented enough, smart enough, CREATIVE enough? The voice of criticism, judgment, invalidation and shame that makes you feel like you are somehow intrinsically defective and just basically not OK?

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The many layers of stitched texture

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Linda Matthews

One of my very favorite things to work with is texture on fabric. I love exploring new and creative ways to make it and to use it.

And I particularly love to use stitch as a way to create raw texture on fabric or fabric paper which can then be used for painting or printing. Using hand stitching or machine stitching or a combination of both to prepare textured fabric for painting or printing is an exciting way to add interesting and unusual texture to fabric and you can find one of my favorite pieces of stitched and painted textured fabric paper here.

And of course creating stitched texture is a great way to use all those hundreds of decorative stitches on your sewing machine. I’m sure you’ve sometimes wondered what to do with all those stitches.

So for the last few days I’ve really enjoyed preparing and working with the samples for my new art bag project and I’ve finally progressed to a point where I’m really happy with the way the technique is working.

It starts with the raw stitched texture.

Painted Texture

Then some paint.

Painted Texture

And to really dress up the texture, some highlighting.

Painted Texture

I often get asked how I do this type of highlighting. Sometimes I use gold paint and dry brush it over the texture, but my favorite method is using a burnishing wax which you can pick up in your local craft store. Adding the highlight does take practice which is the reason I always prepare samples first.

Painted Texture: Rub'n'Buff

So now that I’m happy with the samples, I’m ready to move on to preparing the fabric for the art bag. I simply love working with a process; don’t you?

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Sampling

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Linda Matthews

This is what I did this weekend.

Free Machine Embroidery

It doesn’t look like much does it? Until you get up a little closer.

Free Machine Embroidery

And closer still. Yeh, all that machine work took a long time to do.

Free Machine Embroidery

These pieces are panels for a new art bag that I’m making, in the same style as “Blush” which you can see here, except instead of printing on fabric I’m going to use some hand painted techniques to color the free machine embroidery similar to those used on this journal cover.

And instead of jumping right in like I did the other day and ending up with disastrous results, this time I made some small samples to practice with first.

Do you ever use samples before working on a major project?

I use them frequently for sampling new or unusual techniques. Working with samples is a great way to test new techniques before you begin work on a project and usually take no time at all to make, although these took quite a while because there’s so much stitching on them. Preparing samples gives you the opportunity to try different ways of working with a technique until you’re comfortable with the process.

And if you don’t totally ruin the samples during the process, you can use them in other projects as focus pieces, or cut them up and use them in collages or for piecing applications.

Free Machine Embroidery