I met Jacqueline online when I spotted a David Whitehead fabric design in red and black she was selling. We began to correspond and I discovered that she has an amazing textile collection. She took the trouble to view my website, found the HMF project most interesting and offered to look through her collection to help me find some vintage abstract designs to marry up with the Henry Moore fabrics. Several emails later and I am now the excited owner of these lovely 1950s /1960s pieces. Not sure if any will be acceptable to the Team at the Henry Moore Foundation, it's going to be one of those Marmite moments, but it will make for an interesting design session and some unusual vintage style bags will definitely result either way! Looking back at my initial very safe fabric choices I'm amazed at how far I've come...

Well I haven't been sitting on my backside ALL week! I've been over to Perry Green once more to present some further options for bespoke bags for the coming season, which starts on April 14th.
Please go to https://www.henry-moore.org to find out more about the studios and gardens.

You may remember that I was gathering some fabrics and haberdashery together for the visit. I had also worked up a couple of new bag designs to show.
The meeting was to gauge whether the new shapes were suitable (they were!) and then to decide which fabrics would complement the exclusive Henry Moore textile designs.
Great fun was had by all (five of us) in collaborating to come up with the best combinations - down to the last button.
My attempt at introducing some vintage fabrics had some success-we will be using the red barkcloth and one of the green fabrics (look back at my previous blog). This was turned to the lighter reverse, which made a better match than the front view, but still showed some of the abstract print, which had caught my eye in choosing it originally.
So I won’t be sitting idle – I have so many Moore to do now – another six to be exact!

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...

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!

I'm really surprised it hasn't happened before, because my work table is just not big enough...I was working up a new design for a bucket bag. I'd had a busy day at work as my colleague was on leave and my back-up staff member had to stay at home with her sick child, so maybe I shouldn't have been in the Sewing Room at all but relaxing with my feet up!
I'd already made my pattern pieces at the weekend and was keen to start cutting out and see how it would all fit together. I'd got some lovely blue hessian and a piece of William Morris Chrysanthemum fabric in indigo. I chose the thread carefully to get a good match and found a lovely leather handle that would make it really classy!
All was going well-I'd sewn the front pieces together, then the back, pressed them carefully and top-stitched along the hessian to give it a nice finish. I laid the two pieces on the table and reached for the roll of wadding. Now where to put it to cut a piece off? Yes, you can see what's going to happen now, can't you? I placed it on top of my fabric pieces. I pulled one of them out from underneath to measure how much wadding to cut off and then pulled my shears out of the sundae glass they live in (!) and started to slice through the  wadding. I then noticed some resistance, but it was too late, I had already snipped a three inch slit into the bag back that I'd forgotten to remove from underneath the wadding. I'm not one to swear but I wasn't best pleased, to put it mildly. It was beyond redemption. I momentarily considered making a narrower bag, but the proportions would be completely wrong so there was nothing for it. I had to painstakingly unpick my work squinting under my magnifier, as the thread of course, was such an exact colour match to the fabric that I couldn't see it! So, first the top stitching, then the seams. I cut a new piece of WM fabric and started all over again!
Lesson learnt.
 

I'm pleased with the finished bag and I love the lining fabric (Stephanie Thannhauser Annali Produced by: Dashwood Studio). Not sure but, I think I might keep this one! The last bag I made for myself was for my trip to San Francisco and is nearly two years old now, so I think I'm due a new one! Keep your eye on Etsy tho', as I might change my mind-that's one advantage of being the Maker!

Having completed a time and motion study (well I kept a log of how long it took me!) and found if I made two at a time I saved two hours, I'm now making five all in one go! Not sure if the time saving will multiply, but I quite like working each one up to the same point. It keeps you focused! Come back when I've hand sewn the 10 leather handles in place and see if I feel the same!!

I can't resist a challenge and my bro'-in-law needed a man-bag! His beloved camouflage shorts really were past it but those lovely pockets deserved a new life! So I turned this...

And if you look carefully you can see that the seemingly random camo patterns are actually roses! There is beauty in the most unexpected places-you just have to look for it!

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...?

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

This is the chosen shape of bag. I am to marry Henry Moore's fabric designs with an accent colour to create a union that showcases mid 20th century design with a contemporary feel. They'll be high spec, with leather handles, dupion silk lining, large vintage button, exclusive Moore fabric and limited to a small number of each design produced.

I'm beginning to gather fabrics and haberdashery together to get a feel for what might work. Virtual fabric shops are very convenient but a trip to a bricks and mortar shop is essential to get the colours just right! (What a good excuse!) I'm considering texture as well as colour so will look at some tweed types and I also have some navy handles on order. I'll reveal the star of the show  (Henry Moore fabric) later!

I must say: I am going to stick with my tried and tested ways of working! The piping worked well-I made it from scratch (with my new adjustable zipper foot), but in order to have an integral zipped top, putting  all the pieces together with the lining was a cross between origami and chinese water torture!