Twisted Textiles

Here’s one of the new shapes I’m working on for my “birdfeed bag” bags…it’s still rounded on the bottom, but a bit shorter. This one’s literally a “hand-bag”, but I’ll be trying out more styles with longer handles, too. Because personally, I like to cart around my stuff using my shoulder so my hands will be free. I save myself the trouble of cleaning up a lot of spilled tea and coffee that way!

I’ve also got some dogfood bags with nice images on them, so I suppose I’ll also be making “dogfood bag” bags in the coming weeks! To see some of the other styles that I make out of plastic grocery bags, visit the post here.

I found this skull already gridded-out (via a fellow Flickr member —It was just screaming to be turned into a cross-stitched gift for my husband. I knew it would be perfect on the slippers that I’ve been promising him for awhile now… (click on all photos to enlarge them)

I liked this particular skull design ’cause it was slightly asymmetrical, so I…

• Printed out two of ‘em (one was mirror-imaged) and set to work finding some material. (I haven’t done cross-stitch in literally a decade, and I knew I probably wouldn’t for another 10 years, so I wasn’t going to invest in any more supplies…)
• Found a scrap of black fabric and pieced it to fit my embroidery hoop.
• I wanted my skulls to be slightly smaller than the printed version for the slippers, so for a moment, I considered totally “free-forming” the cross-stitch loosely onto the fabric… … …
• Realized that I’m waaay too perfectionist-oriented for that. And I was too lazy to try to resize the grid and re-print, waste paper etc.
• Drew a larger grid (16 squares) directly onto the printed out diagram, and then used a white chalk pencil to draw the same grid onto the fabric.
• Am pleased to say that it worked out nicely, once I re-taught myself the basics of making TINY… little… X’s…. in perfect… tiny… rows…. *gah!*
• I appliqued the skulls to the fronts of the slippers with invisible stitches. Really that was the most aggravating task of all.

And cross-stitching is actually more relaxing than I had remembered
(I think I would have been bored if I were following a pattern/grid exactly. The difference in scale and the challenge of adjusting the stitch numbers as I went along was a nice change.)

Oh yeah! And I made little skull buttons out of my new favorite clay (they’re on the sides of the slippers)j. I also did some larger stitched X’s for extra extra decoration. Sometimes, we like to go all-out on the embellishments.

While typing the title for this post, I accidentally typed “udderwear”…which is a completely different topic altogether. Perhaps one day I will make high-fashion garments for all the sophisticated and fashion-conscious cows out there—but not today.

This is another OBG (meaning Oldie But Goodie, not Open Bottom Girdle) from years gone by. Why, I remember as if it were yesterday…Sitting on the living room floor of my boyfriend’s apartment, sorting through piles of worn-out socks and underwear that he was planning on throwing out. Sometimes I get strange ideas and they turn out to be wonderful. This was one of those times.

Since the cotton from socks and underwear is very stretchy, especially when it’s worn, I had to use copious amounts of iron-on interfacing as a base. After cutting apart the undies to make them lay as flat as possible, I sort of “collaged” the pieces together on top of the interfacing, using the dress pattern pieces as a guide. Then I simply cut the pieces and sewed them together as I would when making a “normal” dress. I used some of the waistbands from the underwear as edging on the collar and sleeves. I also made a pocket with one of the, um, fabric pockets inside the mens underwear…which turned out very cute!

This piece is currently in the Address and Redress exhibit with two of my other works;
the Safe Release Hat
and the Dryer Sheet Dress.
This is the last week for exhibit, which is located at the Gloria Singletary Gallery in Lexington KY.

These two were a lot of fun! If they could hold hands and dance in a circle, they would definitely do so.

I found a black plastic garbage bag in the unsurmountable “jungle of art supplies” in my garage, and knew that it would be perfect for a more crisp, formal look to these handbags (I’ve been making them mainly from plastic Kroger/Walmart grocery bags). The yellow on the smaller one is from the weekly newspaper-ads that magically appear at the end of the driveway. The creamier beige on the larger purse is from plain ol’ Kroger bags. All of the bright greens and blues came from various bread and produce bags, and the red was found on a package of bagels.

The patterns and colors were inspired by an Egyptian design that I saw in a book, and there are several others that I’d like to try next! As usual, they are very sturdy and very lightweight. The carrots that we buy come in bags with a beautiful, bright orange color that I’ll have to make use of next…

The larger bag is a good size for sketchbooks and such. I will probably take the smaller one with me to the Address and Redress exhibit opening in Lexington tomorrow night.

I wanted to share these while I was thinking about it. And besides—to me, anything well-made (especially hand-made) and original qualifies as art, even if it’s purpose is covering a few little piggies.

When I saw this pair of booties, I just knew I *had* to get them for my niece as a belated Christmas present. The creator has a shop called Diddle Dumpling, and although the shop will be closed briefly while she’s on vacation, she’s sure to have a good variety for sale when she gets back.

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