Photos for Arlee

These are the bigger photos Arlee requested.

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The slow stitch boro bag

I am really enjoying the variety of bags that are appearing on India Flint’s bagstories group on Facebook. I began slow stitching a boro bag when I was recovering from surgery and couldn’t focus for long periods of time. It is a great project to pick up and continue in those little moments of rest. For this bag I used scraps of sari silk, indigo dyed kimono scraps, some eco dyed silk and some lovely natural dyed fabrics and threads from Arlee whose blog I follow.

I decided to stitch this in a quilterly way so layered the lining fabric (a lovely print of an indigenous painting), some padding and then the patches of scraps were pinned. The stitching evolved as I sat and stitched with no real premeditation. the strap also evolved, starting with some indigo dyed cotton-thanks Arlee, onto a wool blanket remnant. It was a little scrappy and not strong enough so I added a wrapping with the madder dyed (I think Arlee??) fabric. Some seams were machine stitched as there were so many layers. Having the padding means it will be perfect to carry my laptop to Uni for the PhD meetings.

I enjoyed this one so much I think I will start another in the Spring term break. Next time I will try using the doll needle (a tip I read somewhere) and use a wool blanket padding. I will also add the lining separately for a better internal finish.