Ruth's L-swop project: finished and in use

For ages I've been meaning to make a travel vanity case that meets all my requirements. It's fun to apply an assigned colour scheme and theme to a project that I really need. Another benefit of working with assigned materials is being provided with a lovely colour set that I never would have picked for myself.

The L for my project came from "lines". I made a collage of all the images in the magazine pages that featured lines. (Sorry I forgot to photograph this collage before we left, so I'll add it to the blog when we get back to England in a couple of months). One of the images was of fat parallel lines: stems of reeds or flowers, I think. This is what inspired the long band around the body of my bag. I used the scarf and tie fabrics and some machine and hand sewing lines. It was fun to add the beaded fringe here. There was just enough of the red to make the outer shell of the bag. 

Another "L" came from the "leftover" fabric that went into the interior and base of the bag, and the leftover zip from a suitcase I dismantled. The fabric strip around the top and bottom of the bag was what I cut off the bottom of a friend's dress when I shortened it for her. It had just the right mix of colours.

Hi Everyone and Happy New Year! The 'L' themed swop project.


I have just had a heavenly day spent sewing and not a lot else, Dan and his girlfriend did all the cooking and I have been able to do as I pleased all day. So low and behold I have got my project done.

I started with the magazine and picked a picture of a beautiful sculpture(sorry pic is so blurry) made of volcanic 'Lava'  this word and the fact that it is in the Lake District are my rather tentative links to the L theme. I decided to make a circular cushion, for one of my very hard wooden barstools.
I made a VERY simplified template of a section of the design.

And then decided that I preferred the shape of the central section instead of the outline section, it had a sort of African flavour to it and Dan thought it looked like fish bones!!







When playing with the fabrics I liked the way that the fineness of the  scarf let other colours show thru, so I layed the scarf fabric on top of the pink and red fabric. I stitched it into place and edged it with running stitch to anchor the layers together and to emphasise the outline of the pink shape. I then cut the bead edging into 3's and arranged at intervals around the edge.

The next bit was tricky because I wanted to put a black edge around the circle but there was too little fabric to cut it on the bias, but I managed to kind of stretch it and ease it around the edge.

I then sewed on some elastic ties and a back  and added stuffing and I am proud to say I now have a very useful and comfy finished project!