BAGSTORIES

Towards the end of last school year 

I signed up for my first online workshop with superstar eco-dyer India Flint.

It was called Bagstories and we were hand stitching a Bento type bag (Japanese)

that India calls a Wanderbeutel.

She had us pull together and use an assortment of odds and ends from our fabric stashes.

I used the pieces below;

Eco-Bundled, Shibori w/ Rust, & Solar Printed.

Part One was to cut 50 squares of fabric, 

that I cut to 3" by 3".

If I ever make another bag I will go bigger to 4" by 4". 

Part Two was to sew them together into little pillows.

Then Part Three was to sew each pillow closed

and if you wanted to add some embroidery stitching.

Part Four,

 to arrange them in a certain pleasing pattern

and then to sew them all together.

I also added buttons to give mine a bit of a snazzy spark.

Some close=ups.

And tah-dah!

The finished bag!

Part Five was to sew it together like a Bento Bag,

which was super tricky and a secret not to be revealed!

Ha!

Other side.

And Part Six was to add a shoulder strap out of fabric.

But I wanted something different then the others in the class,

so I pulled out all my eco-bundling strings I had saved,

choose the ones that had the flavor of the squares and crocheted 2 straps,

tying them together into a top knot.

I also used the string to wrap around two "D" shaped metal rings,

then sewed the straps to the rings.

  To connect the whole enchilada I sewed the rings onto the corners of the bag.

The closure was the trickiest part.

It was optional but I did it because I wanted my bag to stay closed.

So again back to the strings where I messed around 

and figured out how to crochet two triangles

 that I sewed into the "V" shaped openings in the middle of both sides.

But there was a revolting development.

The bag wouldn't close right and looked funny so back to the drawing board,

and 3 triangles later I had a closure that actually looked good and worked.

And the perfect antique button finished it off.

Except,

one more problemo,

It wouldn't sit right.

So I found some plastic needlepoint stuff,

cut it to fit into the bottom just right,

then surrounded it with the most beautiful piece of silk eco-printed fabric 

from my friend and fellow fiber artist extraordinaire Michelle Hoffee.

And there it was, 

finally finished almost 7-8 months later.

I know,

I'm really slow.

All the other Bagsters have made at least 3 to my 1 but I'm just thrilled I even finished one.

YES!!!