Our Creative Space...

I've been meaning to try japanese mesh work for a while , and finally got to it. First I thought to use bias band, but I didn't trust the folds of the bias band to behave on the long run, since I wanted to use it for a bag without fear of it unraveling.

So, it had to be strips of fabric, cut 3 cm wide and sewn at 1cm with help of a guide on the machine.

Then the tunnels had to be turned with a thingy and Estella's help.

Ironed...

And pinned on the iron board on a piece of fusible interfacing. All this came from a japanese craft book, but after this first row, things got pretty unintelligible in the book, with only some schematic drawings. I'm sure the written instructions are great, but without that, you really have to put your mind to it.

Here is the first row all pinned. In the instruction drawings they let you mark lines on the interfacing, but they get all covered up, so not much help here.

This is a pattern for a 6 point star, btw, but countless patterns are possible. the second course has three different rows woven in a 60 degrees incline. It is now 1 up-2 under in three alternated rows.

An other detail of the second course.

I put the tape to make the surface smaller, because I run out of strips. This sucker surely eats a lot of fabric!

And than the third and last row. Estella had to come to my rescue because I got all confused. It is 2 up and 3 under in this row, again alternating. Hopefully the pictures will be of help if you try it.

The star pattern is a bit lopsided, I think that even a more accurate approach is needed, and thinner fabric. This sample, done with thin wool fabrics is really heavy.

This oval -it had to be an oval since I run out of material for the corners- took me the best part of the weekend. If you have lots of fabric, time and patience, the results are interesting for sure!

See more creative spaces at Our Creative Spaces.

Our Creative Space...

Although we sell good, we can create much more items than we can sell. So I am always looking for time consuming things to make, to still the creative fever. Smocking and faux chenille are examples of this. The newest endevour is orinuno, or origami with fabrics. The instructions in a japanese craft book were as clear as mud, so it took some time to figure it out, and yes, it is as time consuming as you could wish for :)

It is made with 100 % reclaimed fabrics, what I find extremely rewarding, and the results are super cool. Now 3 is in the make right now and it goes quicker the more you do of course, so it is time to move on to even more complicated ones!

The first one is already available in our bag shop.

See more creative spaces at Kootoyoo's.