Negative Space: When plans go awry

I wanted to try out my first bag pattern again in hopes of ironing out some of the issues I had with the first one. This was successful, but as usual brought on a whole new round of challenges.

Jeans tend to be not super colourful. They come in blue and black and different shades in between. Finding colourful jean fabric at the thrift store is pretty much impossible. So, what's a girl to do? Fabric dye to the rescue!

Doesn't it look pretty?

I started with a pair of black jeans. I was concerned that with jeans being so saturated by dye already they would not pick up any of the new colour so I decided they should be bleached first. One vat of bleach and a 20 minutes later I had a much lighter fabric to play with.

Into the tub of fabric dye it goes.

About and hour later I figured it had done its time and I was quite pleased with the colour of the fabric. They say you should make sure the fabric you are dying has turned 3 shades darker than your chosen shade as some of the dye will wash out when rinsed. Excitedly I washed out my fabric and then threw it into the washer to get the residual dye out.

This came out of my washer.

What happened to my dark purple??

What happened? I was robbed! My beautiful purple fabric had washed into a dirty looking light pink. My mind tried to tell myself it was now a antiquey rose colour but it was no use. It just looked like pink fabric that had gone for a roll in the chimney soot. No fair.

I even experimented with a couple swatches to see how it would end up and they were so much nicer than this jean fabric.

I hated the thought of not using the fabric as there was no way I was wasting more fabric dye on a lost cause so I pondered this issue for a while. How to get this fabric to work?

Then I remembered the black poly organza I had in my fabric stash. This came courtesy of my best friend who used it in a Halloween costume and then gifted it to me. It is sheer and look what happens when I layer it onto the previously icky pink:

oooh pretty

Now it is a muted black with a purple shine though. Problem solved! It was still a bit of a pain to sew with. The organza liked to wander off during sewing but with enough pins I was able to convince it to behave. I still don't like sewing with silky fabrics.

For note, this is what happens when you forget your iron is on the cotton setting and try to iron your polyester fabric. So not good. I have no idea how I am going to get that off my iron. Oops!

all finished!

the back

Finally I got the whole thing sewn together.

Unfortunately I only have one strap and I have not found a good place to buy the hardware needed to make my own straps. Etsy is kind of limited and other places on-line are either super expensive or you have to buy at least 500. It is really frustraiting.

To line the bag I used this cute purple rayon (yes it is actually purple, its looks more blue in this picture) which I got quite a while ago to make a dress out of. The dress has not really materialized yet, but it was fun to use a bit of the fabric for the lining. And so Prince Rupert appropriate with the umbrellas.

Check out the matching snap. With some family consultation with mum and dad I figured out how to paint the plain silver snaps I found and coat them so they will last (I hope). Now I can make my own to match any bag I make.

Random Rupert

We got one nice day this weekend so Hugh and I got outdoors and walked to Morsby Park to take some pictures. We went down to one of our favorite spots near the lake as it was shady and cool.