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Very Moore-ish...

27/1/2017

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My Moore stash!

Love these - but not sure that any of these greens are right!

Barkcloth has a coarse texture and is very 1950's!

Some safer bets-you can't go too wrong with a check!

Forgive the pun! Just wanting to show that I am also getting ready for some 'Moore' work! The exclusive textiles are quite difficult to find bedfellows for, if you get my drift, and at times I'm buying fabrics not knowing if the risk will pay off! I think I am developing quite an oblique way of looking at textile colour and design and certainly enjoying the search. I have now started to consider vintage (but unused) fabrics, some of which appear quite wacky in comparison to the modern safe stuff! And I'm hoping I this will give the bags a more authentic look - for those that like that sort of thing - we'll see!

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Fifty shades of red...

22/1/2017

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Following a visit to a well known purveyor of floral bags (you know who!) my friend at work decided she'd prefer me to make a bespoke bag - most flattering to be chosen over you know who - so she could have exactly what she wanted! She had already seen the bag below and wanted me to use this beautiful Morris & Co fabric called Honeysuckle and Tulips in a russet colour-way.
We stole a few minutes at work to look at this website to choose the bag design and then to find a co-ordinating fabric to make the top band. On screen, I thought we'd nailed it, until I got back home and put the two together in the 'flesh'! Not a good match after all...

She chose this russet coloured Honeysuckle and Tulips fabric...

And this classic "Beaujangle" bag design. We thought the same top band would match our Morris fabric.

A dilemma-If I couldn't use the original fabric, what should I choose to replace it and that would go with the available haberdashery?

I thought I knew which to use, but took a few samples to work with me, just to be sure!

We stole a few more minutes at work which was just as well, as my friend chose the wine red corduroy (at the top) to complement the background and I had nearly run with the orangey red linen (second from bottom) to match the leaves!
So it's now full steam ahead...with the right sort of red! Come back soon to see the finished bag!

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Author

Hello, I'm Ruth Overton. My nickname as a child was 'Ruthie Toots' which is how the name
Toots Totes'
came about!
I come from a family of artists and artisans and the creative gene has resulted in a desire to make stuff. There's nothing I love more, than to sit at my old treadle machine, sewing. It was handed down to me, through the family having been bought by my Grandad for Grandma in the 1930's. (See my blogs about the machine here.)
More recently I have turned my attention to designing and creating bags and 'Toots Totes' began.
I'm going to blog about how ideas for bags come about and how things happen in the sewing room, so join me there if you want to, or bypass this to go to the store or the gallery, if you prefer - I won't mind!

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Very Moore-ish...

Fifty shades of red...

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