Saturday 28 December 2013

Mr.Walker


A very good friend of mine has a cat that she loves dearly named Mr.Walker.
For her Christmas present we thought to make her a bag picturing her cat.
We have documented the process so that maybe you can also make yourself a bag (or a wall hanging) of your favorite pet.


We had only a picture of Mr.Walker, a bit too crowded for the purpose, but it was meant to be a surprise, so we went ahead and made first a line drawing of it in Photoshop.


Then we printed that image on thin fusible interfacing, on the side where the glue is, other wise the image would be inverted.


After ironing the interfacing to the wrong side of the main fabric, I went over the main lines with a neutral colored thread on the machine with a free stitching foot. This will be my guide for the further steps.


Then, with the picture in front of me I spray glued a piece of white upholstery fabric on the right side of the fabric and went again over the lines of the body of the cat at the wrong side of the fabric. This step is repeated several times: spray glue a piece of fabric on its place, stitch at the other side and cut off the fabric outside the lines.


Here is a black patch where Mr.Walker's chin is.


Stitch and cut.


Now the black part on the cat's head is stitched and cut, the white nose is outlined from the back.


You can't see it here, but the eyes are taffeta, that shimmers yellow and green, just like cats eyes.


A white patch for the nose. The fabric is called colt hide and has a fur embossing, perfect! By the nose the direction of the 'hide' is up. By the body is down like in real life.


For the interior of the ears, I needle felted with the machine some wisps of white roving.


And stitched on top of it.


A bit of paint for his nose.


The background was too crowed to apply in the same way, but here came an English chintz in handy.


All these further steps are done at the right side of the fabric. The chintz is stitched in free motion along the print and the fabric is cut away with sharp embroidery scissors.


Continue to apply pieces of fabric till the effect is to your liking.


But what is a cat without his whiskers?


Fishing line makes fine whiskers.


And here is sweet Mr.Walker in the garden.


There are quite some steps, materials and tools involved so if you can not make it yourself you can order a customized bag with your furry kid in our bagshop :)


4 comments:

  1. Thank you..most interesting blog...and the steps for makng this beautiful bag so easy to follow!

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  2. Wow, WONDERFUL!!!! Your friend must be so happy!!!
    Happy New Year, girls! :)

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  3. This is a very cool idea and I am very creative, but you lost me at the beginning cat part! I think I got the floral chintz part! LOL! You did a very nice job but I'm not sure I have the patience for it! I plan on getting my very first puppy as an adult,getting a Yorkiepoo like I had as a kid. It was not a designer puppy as they call them today. We just accidentally found out a dog can get pregnant by more than one dog and had the cutest most unique litter of 6 puppies. I maybe would try this with my future puppy!

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