Category: Finding Fabrics - Toots Totes

Check out the vintage vibes.

15/4/2017

Images of 'Heads' and 'Safety Pins' reproduced by permission of the Henry Moore Foundation.

Remember how I had been trying to find some contemporaneous fabrics to complement the exclusive Moore designed fabrics I am fortunate to be currently sewing? I wanted to give more of a vintage vibe to the bags to appeal to those who enjoy vintage style. Well this is the result. As you can see I have used the red barkcloth which is a genuine vintage (but unused) piece dating from the 50's/60's. The lime green was sold to me as vintage but is more difficult to date, however the abstract design works really well with Moore's quirky household objects!
And yes, we settled on some safer checks too!

Each bag has a complementary cotton or silk lining with two open pockets and a zipped pocket with a beaded zip pull. The Bucket bags and Beaujangle bags have leather handles and the Clutch bags have detachable silver coloured cross-body chain handles.
Available from the Henry Moore Studios and Gardens shop now!
A new exhibition starts this weekend, called 'Becoming Henry Moore' and promises to be a fascinating insight into his early work and inspiration. Follow this link to find out more: https://www.henry-moore.org/whats-on/2017/04/14/becoming-henry-moore

Very Moore-ish...

27/1/2017

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!

Fifty shades of red...

22/1/2017

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!

LBB's (Little Black Bags!)

11/11/2016

One of my best customers has ordered three black evening bags as Christmas presents. It's just as well I completed my William Morris order in good time!
A while ago I acquired (for 'acquired' read 'won on Ebay'!) a 'job lot' of lovely italian woven fabric samples - not sure what they were originally designed for...possibly clothing - but in shades of neutral colours and black. I can just squeeze a little bag out of the smaller pieces and with a little careful beading and silk linings, they look quite special.

Bead placement is crucial to the finished piece and great fun to do.

Chain handle clipped on and ready to go!

Little black bag number two with seemingly random (but actually intricately planned) beading!

Sewing the frame on with transparent thread takes time and oodles of patience!

Rosy red silk dupion lining with pockets, of course.

And a beautiful turquoise dupion silk lining.

The last fabric piece really needed a different treatment. They're all pretty busy fabrics but this one didn't look right with beading-it was all too much, so it became a simple clutch bag using the same design as the WM clutches I had made. Finished with just a vintage glass button it looks simply elegant and elegantly simple!
Let's hope the ladies they are destined for have some stylish LBD's to go with them!

Beyond the pale...?

27/5/2016

I had a lovely jaunt across the countryside on a gorgeous sunny spring morning, past quaint villages and bright yellow fields to Tiptree to visit the best craft and fabric shop in these parts.
I chose a plain navy loose weave felted woollen fabric for its texture as well as colour and then as you see above I strayed from my brief and bought something more interesting! One appealed to my bohemian side and the other just looked sooo smart and was just the right green!
I knew I had to take the risk! Can't wait to see how it all comes together!
Beyond the brief but hopefully not beyond the pale...?

Texture mixture.

20/5/2016

Fun to try different textures as well as colours: top to bottom-corduroy, velvet, hopsack, wool, linen. Leather handles and vintage buttons.

Vibrant Vintage Vibes...

29/3/2016

You'll have noticed from my recent Facebook and Instagram posts that I've been steadily acquiring vintage and vintage style fabrics and the more vibrant the better!

I've been trying to work up some new designs to do them credit! My first design looks fine (if you don't look too close!) but was so fiddly I can't possible do it again and stay sane! I think a square bag cross body bag is the next step...

Here's a prototype ready to be stitched. I'm trying a new method of assembly this time. usually I make the outer, then the lining and sew them together round the top, inside out and then 'give birth' to the new bag through a small gap in the lining stitching, by pulling it all through! The new method stitches the lining in as you go, I think you still have to give birth, but you end up with a completed bag inside out just to turn the right way round! Anyhow-I'll let you know how it goes - I like a new challenge!

Retro 1950's vibes

30/10/2015

Superb design from the 1950's re-visited by Sanderson recently. I have a few pieces of 'Mobiles' in several colourways, so am starting with a lovely powder blue. I'm going to team it up with a contemporary designer-no less than Red or Dead's Wayne Hemingway - who has branched out into textile design.

This one is called knotted up for obvious reasons!

The beginnings of a flapped clutch bag.

Magnetic fasteners each side

Simple removable fabric handle.

D ring to hold the handle.

All the usual pockets and a beaded zip pull. (Beads bought in San Francisco!)

A bright yellow vintage button completes the look!

At a later date I added a bow, which really looked a lot better!

Skinny Malinky Long Legs...

25/9/2015

Remember a few posts ago, I introduced a fabulous fabric designer that I had recently discovered: Heather Moore of Skinny laMinx in South Africa? And remember how pleased I was to get hold of a piece of the 'Cloudbird' fabric for my flight bag? Well... I've collected a few more bits and pieces since, and It's becoming a bit of an obsession!
And I've just found out that the name Heather gave to her company is a corruption of the children's rhyme "Skinny Malinkey long legs, big banana feet..." not Minnie the Minx from the Beano as I had thought! Both reflect the fun in the designs she creates! (Update 24/02/17 : I've since read that Skinny laMinx is a nickname for her cat Monkey!)

Taken from the Skinny laMinx website.

My flight bag in Cloud Bird fabric

First I caught sight of a couple of 'Spruce Woodpile' cushion covers on Ebay. Luckily for me they didn't look much in the photo, so no-one else bid and I got them for 99p!

Didn't look much in the Ebay listing...

Once stuffed to capacity they look great!

Lots of lovely squares to play with!

I kept browsing the Skinny laMinx website, and finally, I couldn't help myself and ordered some patchwork squares as the best way to sample as many of the designs as I could and to have something I could use creatively. To my delight they came quite quickly and I posted this to the Skinny laMinx Facebook page:

"Such excitement in Braintree, UK, on coming home from work today there was a package all the way from Cape Town! Carefully opening the envelope I found my DIY fabric squares all neatly wrapped in tissue with a Skinny laMinx sticker and wonderful logo birdie tag, tied round with brown fibrous string! Couldn't wait to see which fabrics were included, I made a futile attempt at not tearing the tissue and on the top-YES-my favourite, which I've tried (sadly unsuccessfully) to purchase from any and every supplier in the UK and even your SA home store-ok, so it's only 7 squares, but I have some EEP, at long last!! Also some Cloud Bird which I also adore and which was the first of your designs to grab me! Thank you! I must confess even the sticker has been peeled off the tissue to grace my noticeboard, along with the promotional card (showing your gorgeous cushions) and my little cut out birdie logo...one very happy customer..."

To my surprise I had a reply from Heather:
"Hooray! Thanks so much for your lovely, lovely note! It's super-inspiring for my team to hear how much our packages are enjoyed. xx Heather

And then a second message:
"PS: If you're keen on more Eep, do email shop@skinnylaminx.com and see if she can find more for you. We've discontinued that print, and Cloudbirds too, but we still have a couple of metres kicking about that we might be able to help you with, if you're keen."

I replied that I was keen! (This was sale stock, usually reserved for their home crowd). Several emails exchanges later with a very helpful lady called Sonia, I am now the proud owner of two half metres of Cloudbird. Sadly, even though I pestered for a thorough search and a very patient Sonia thumbed through the fat quarters, the EEP (top right in first pic above) was not forthcoming :(

Cloudbird in goldfinch and blackboard.

Flowerfields

I've also acquired this unusual Skinny laMinx design called Flowerfields as offcuts from a UK blind/curtain company. The fabric is a good weight and ideal for bag making, but i have a beloved wicker chair that needs a makeover and it may take all the squares and the Flowerfields. So unbelievably, the bags might have to take a 'backseat' (get it?) for a while! I'll get back to you on that!

I left my heart in San Francisco...

3/5/2015

Ok-I won't go on about the amaaazing holiday we had in San Francisco and Southern California-but definitely one that will be remembered! I did make a couple of purchases from Britex fabrics near Union Square in San Francisco: four floors of fabrics! Oh my-I kept searching for remnants-I knew they must be there somewhere and of course they were on the top floor-shelves and shelves of neatly folded temptation. I succumbed to two pieces each of which was 2.5 yds (yes they still work in imperial measures there) and I paid $40-which is about £26 - just over £5 a yard, which seemed pretty reasonable-its a good weight.

China Town was a riot of colour and I found some lovely glass beads at $5.99 (£4) for about 15. I bought them at the first shop I saw them and as I progressed through the streets I noticed there were plenty to be had. Fortunately for me the prices seem to rise as I got further in-so I felt I had done well! They will make lovely zip pulls for my bags.

Spot the flight bag!!

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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