Modern Embroidery Messenger / Shoulder bag

Thank you all for answering my questions on the last Giveaway post. The entry is still going on until Dec 17th so please leave your comment on the last post to win the giveaway!

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 I finished making a bag which features this colorful leaves embroidery.

This bag is messenger style, but it can be used as a shoulder bag because I made the strap adjustable. The exterior fabrics are cotton canvas and cotton corduroy. I put same embroidery design on both sides of the bag body. When you see it from the top the embroidery pattern is continuous over the zip opening.

The top zipper opens pretty wide so you can easily find your stuff in the bag and get them out. Also I made the strap wide to ease your shoulder off the weight of a lot of things you need to carry.

  

The lining is a cotton print from Denyse Schumidt's "County Fair" collection. There is one simple pocket and one zipper pocket inside.

This is how it looks like when it is used as a shoulder bag.

This bag is now listed in my Etsy shop. There are some more pictures of this bag in my Flickr pool as well.

We had much snow last night and it seems we are going to have White Christmas this year. My daughter had her first ballet performances "the Nut cracker" last weekend, and she had a Christmas concert at her school last night. There are many holiday activities going on here just like you do. I hope I can write about those sometime soon........ I have so many things on my to do list though.

I hope you all have Happy Holidays!

December Giveaway Day!

Do you remember that giveaway I participated in May? I cannot believe it has been seven months since then. I am going to give my handmade things away again for this Sew, Mama, Sew blog Giveaway Day.

So as you will notice on Sew, Mama, Sew blog , the competition will close on the December 17th . To enter please leave a comment on this post to answer these three questions about purchasing patterns online. Entries will be taken from today until December 17th and I will draw the winner randomly on December 18th. The items will be sent from USA, and I will ship internationally.

The questions are ....
1) What kind of patterns do you want to buy online? Embroidery? Sewing clothes? Quilts? Making purses? Or something else?
2) Have you ever purchased any kinds of patterns online?
3) Do you prefer PDF type (you download the file and print it out to use) or Paper type (you receive the pattern already printed on papers)?

If you have any particular patterns you really like, I would love to hear about it too!

There are the items I will give away this time. They all go to one person who wins this giveaway. A set of a little box and two sachets which are embellished with silk ribbon embroidery.

I am not going to put any scent in the sachets. So you could use them to store your jewelry in it or put your favorite fragrance inside. I hope many people will enter this giveaway and would love to hear from you! Happy Giveaway Day!

Modern Zip Pouches !

This has been a crazy busy week! Nina's first stage the Nutcracker of Southold Dance Theater just opened this morning. So we had three days of dress rehearsals at Morris Performing Arts Center, then there are three more stages Nina will be on this weekend. I will wright about that later this week, or maybe next Monday.

But I tried to update my Etsy shop by this weekend so I would like to tell you about it Today.

I finished two stylish modern pouches this morning and one messenger bag is on the way yet. These pouches have a geometrical pattern which is felt appliqued and embellished with sequins and some stitches. I partially used my sewing machine for making sharp embroidered line.

On the back, they both have simplified applique pattern as well. I added felt charms for the zipper pulls. Those pulls are fun to make and make the product merrier. I like to make them.

The sequins added some sharpness on the design. I am glad I came up with the idea of using machine stitches. I think it looks more sophisticated. What do you think?

As usual, thinking of what fabric I should choose for lining was so much fun. I used multicolored stripes print (Japanese cotton) for the light blue one, and one of "Good Folks" by Anna Maria Honer for the green one.

These pouches are now listed on my Etsy shop. There are more pictures will be on my Flickr pool soon. If you are interested.

I am waiting for some zippers I ordered coming in my mail box. Then I will finish up one more big project for my shop. I think I will keep myself being super busy by after Christmas. I hope you all have super happy busy Holidays too!

Embroidered Leaves / Snow Cat

I am working on the new project. It is embroidery. Many many leaves are coming into being.

 I love these colors of leaves.

Inside house we have colorful leaves in my hand but outside is pretty much filled with gray and white. We had another couple of snow days and built a snowman.......No, a snow cat this morning.

Adding ears on his head was Nina's idea. His eyes are made of buttons, nose is a carrot, and mouth is a stick we found in our yard. We are so proud that we made him very cute and unique. I bet the snow cat impressed all the neighbors who drove by our house this afternoon.

It is expected that we will have much snow tonight. I hope all of you stay warm and have a good weekend!

Ready to go!

I set up my purses in the store of Circa Arts Gallery this morning. They gave me the best spot in their store so people will see my stuff as soon as they went in the store. My Etsy shop will be on vacation mode while all items are gone to this event. If you are close to South Bend Indiana, please come to see my work and have fun at DTSB First Fridays and Holiday Art Walk. I will be there sometime Friday evening and Saturday Afternoon.

This is the store front of Circa Arts Gallery. The next door is my favorite shop Junk Evolution.

Happy Artistic Holidays!

Three more bags for Holiday Art Walk

I prepared three more bags which have a little taste of Japan for Holiday Art Walk. These are all made in the past, and now I changed something for improving their practicability.

This bag is made with vintage Kimono fabric. It has beautiful chrysanthemum pattern. I added some seed beads to enhance its brilliance. The pattern is so traditional but also looks very modern.

I made this bag for my book which has published in Japan years ago. (The book is no longer printed unfortunately.) This time I altered the size and made an additional pouch that fits in the bag perfectly. The pouch can be used by itself, too. I used another vintage Kimono silk for the lining of the pouch. (You can see the picture of it on my flickr pool.) It has pretty rose pattern.

 

 Beads work gives a three-dimensional effect.

You have seen this ribbon embroidery? Yes. I changed this tote I made before into a frame purse.

 The lining is cotton fabric which has a Japanese traditional pattern "Sei-Gai-Ha". It means "Blue Ocean Waves". There are pockets for a cellphone and pens.

This one below is a pochette. The embroidery is a combination of Mirror work and Beads work. I represented fireworks in the Summer night sky. This was also made for the book I mentioned.

I am so glad I've conserved them in good condition. Eventually I got a chance to show them in public now. I have never thought these bags I made for my books would be shown in the gallery in America when I made them. I have never expected living in the foreign country myself. That makes me think that Life is so thrilling that it is more fun.

I hope people will be interested in Japanese textiles like Kimono and Sashiko through my work.

There are more pictures in my Flickr pool of these bags.

Exhibit my bags at Gallery / Business Card Case

There is a gallery in Down Town South Bend called Circa Arts Gallery. They exhibit and sell quality pieces of local artists'. This is my favorite gallery so I visit there once a while to amuse my eyes and shop gifts or something for myself. And their next door is also my favorite store Junk Evolution. They sell up-cycled vintage things and create nice home decor.

 I am glad to tell you that I 'm going to show my bags in Circa Arts Gallery for Down Town South Bend event Holiday Art Walk. My stuff will be there on Dec 2nd through Dec 4th. Holiday Art Walk is on Saturday, and also we will have another annual event DTSB First Fridays on Friday. It means many people will see my things through the events. I am pretty much excited about it.

The offer came up suddenly last Thursday, so things I can show are the bags from my Etsy shop and a few more I newly have made for the event. After the events, I am going to make more and hope to keep providing good products constantly for Circa.

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By the way, for starting business, I made my business cards for promotion. Then I wanted a little case for carrying my cards with me. I remembered that I bought a plastic card case at Nelie Rubina which is a hand craft shop my friend Yasuko owns in Yokohama Japan. I made a cover with scrap felt sheets.

We are going to Batesville in South Indiana to visit our relatives for Thanks Giving. It is going to be about four hours drive. We'll stay over night and come back on Friday. I will update about several things I made for exhibition then. Thank you for reading and wish everyone have a happy Thanks Giving!