Tuesday, April 28, 2009

racing against the sun

You don't have to hang around here for very long to realize that Wendie and I are card-carrying members of a mutual admiration society. When my shipment of handles arrived last week, including some new narrow straps, I immediately thought of her (Wendie is a) Jeanius bags, and I just knew that there would be one in my near future.

Because there is no such thing as "too many" purses...I soon started digging around in my pile of clothes and other odd bits waiting to go to the Sally Ann, looking for a pair of old jeans. All of those I found are some sort of boot cut, so I won't be dealing with perfectly straight sides, but I think it will be okay (I cut a ways up from the bottom, where there's a little less flare).

I was anxious to get started and though I could have rushed it last night.... I convinced myself to just wait and take my time. I was really hoping to get started right after work today, but I got preoccupied with tidying, dinner, e-mail, etc. By the time I got around to cutting my jeans, determining the size of my flap, drawing my design (even though it's small, it still takes me some time)...time was ticking. By the time I'd finalized my drawing, the sun was fast setting.

Rather than dig out my lightbox, for such a small piece, I did it my old way: the window method. I don't recommend this approach for anything big, since the backing can drape in awkward ways and it can be a challenge to accurately transfer your design. For a piece this small, it's easy to just wing it - and so much faster, too. Just tape your picture to the window and then tape your backing on top. It's much easier to line things up if you draw your outline on the backing first (before you hang it on the window).


When the backing is held back against the drawing, it's a lot easier to see the lines than it appears in the picture.

While the sun had almost disappeared, there was still enough light to transfer the pattern. Now that this job is done, I'm anxious to get started on the hooking. I'm off to do that right now....