The Pouch Prototype

Working on the prototypes is giving me something to focus on and I'm really grateful for that. I always enjoy an engaging project. Because the zippered tote uses the most supplies and has more steps than the others, I decided to work my way up from simplest to most complex starting with the pouch. 

My goal is to be efficient and organized with the supplies and the construction steps and to really enjoy creating the one-of-a-kind exteriors. I tried three different variations with the pouches that hopefully will work for the others as well. 

The bag at left is a painted cotton exterior with fusible fleece and a canvas lining. The center bag is denim with fusible fleece and a quilting cotton lining backed with fusible interfacing. The right one is painted canvas backed with fusible interfacing and a quilting cotton lining without interfacing. 

For the exterior, the surface design looked far better on the pima cotton than on the canvas and it took less paint. I used textile paint that I had in stash. I'm also going to experiment with acrylic paint plus a textile medium and with acrylic paint on its own. The fusible fleece gives the exterior fabric more body and helps the bag to stand nicely so I think that's the approach I'll take. I also preferred the lining with interfacing partly for the ease of sewing. It was firmer and less inclined to shift or stretch and created a smoother interior. 

As with the abstracts on paper, I didn't like trying to paint a complete design on the fabric so I'm exploring piecing and collaging the exteriors. The second lesson in my online workshop comes out today It will be interesting to see what I can apply to paper and to fabric and these bags. 

In the images above, the upper line of top stitching is regular thread and the lower line is heavy duty thread. I prefer the lower line on the front but not on the back. What's weird is it only had these loops with the topstitching and not when I sewed the side seams. They were fine. Something to figure out. 

When I went to the retreat, I took my back-up machine and have been using it since I got home because the Bernina is failing quickly. They have different feet and I want some of the Bernina ones on the Pfaff so I can do what I normally do, the way I normally do it, only that's not to be. I'm still figuring out which foot to use for sewing in the zipper and what needle positions to use for top-stitching. Hopefully, I can figure out a system where there are few if any changes and the sewing is very streamlined. 

I bought this canvas from the thrift store and washed it to see how the paint would hold up under stress and to evaluate if making the exterior fabrics from canvas already prepared with gesso (so it would use less paint) was a viable option. It's not. 

I've already swapped out the paint desk for this higher table with a dresser underneath. The height will be better for painting fabrics and the combination has more storage than the desk... which is now in the guest room... where this dresser was before. The table was out in the garage.  Apparently, I just like to shuffle the furniture. 

My contractor can come and repair the closet and install the shelving only not right away so I folded the fabric to fit into boxes set on their sides and created temporary shelving for now. It was fun to go through all my fabric and see what was suitable for bags and what I no longer wanted... which wasn't much. I have gotten much better at knowing my style.

I'm part way through sewing a skirt for the exhibit opening on the 30th. It's cream with flowers and pollinators drawn on it in black - to match the theme. I found some black knit - finally - last week and will make a top to go with and a necklace, of course. 

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - progress with the prototypes