New heavyweight tapestry material – great for bags!
Hazel and I have been out today foraging for leather ( as you do!) and I have happened on a good sized piece of this lovely heavyweight tapestry fabric.
New carpet bag materials
So I really have no other choice but to make a brand new carpet bag. The green and yellow material is another of my favourites and will make a nice contrast lining. I’ll be cutting leather edging strips from this piece of soft tan leather which tones well with the yellowy brown and terracotta in the tapestry fabric. I’ve been making carpet bags using furnishing and upholstery weight fabrics for quite a while and have adapted the same pattern slightly to make my leather patchwork bags.
“One I made earlier”“One I made earlier” interior
So here goes – I’ll be back when I’ve finished so you can see what it looks like.
I spent the day last Friday having a serious tidy-up in the workroom. It may not look very tidy from the picture but at least I now know where everything is. I’ve also found all those small, essential little things that Willow cat thoughtfully chased into the most inaccessible corners. There’s even been hoovering involved!
Our home is beautiful and old with cottagey type windows. Like all lovely things, there is a downside to this. Little windows mean not a lot of light. For this reason I’ve placed the table against the window, and of course, I have the twinklies! All my work lights have LED bulbs so are reasonably guilt free on the energy bills. Another bonus to having the table against the window is that I can be distracted by the narrowboats on the canal outside. The boaters are well used to me jumping up and down waving to them at the window.
There is another reason for having a good clear round. I am hoping soon to have a new-to-me industrial machine for sewing leather. Industrial machines come with purpose built tables, so I have to know I can fit one in!
I suppose it’s a girly, girly thing but I’ve always loved having bows on things. As soon as I began working with leather, bows were one of the first designs I experimented with. Of course the leather pleats beautifully (with some hefty encouragement and very, very strong thread). So I made hairslides, bow brooches and clip-on bow ties. The leather keeps its shape perfectly.
Hair slide and bow brooch – thanks to Hazel for the picture!Lovely leather dicky bow
Then the bows started popping up all over the darn place. They turned up on diaries, memo pads, journals and address books – even on little business card holders (a personal favourite!)
Tiddleyworks display
The red leather bows have been pretty popular so I’m now trying out different colours – wahoo!
Denim blue leather refillable A6 journal
The bow items are beginning to find their way into my Etsy and Folksy shops (www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Tiddleyworks and http://www.folksy.com/shops/rozzynanty).
This leatherworking business has been a massive learning curve. There’s been lots of reading, research online, skill sharing, making a mess of things,talking to experts when we can but sometimes there’s just no alternative but to get out there.
So a favourite with the Leather Ladies is what we call the “Research and Development” day. This involves Hazel (Haifflinch Designs) and I (Tiddleyworks) packing our little bags before climbing into one of our cars and heading off on a voyage of leather exploration.
Hazel’s useful “activity purse” -ideal for explorers!
In spite of my satnav, we do invariably get lost somewhere along the way but this is soon sorted by Hazel winding down the passenger window and asking the way from passers by.
One of our best days out was to Walsall. Not far I know but we did go via two sewing machine shops with my little old (heavy) Jones machine which was trundled down back streets from the car between us (“To me – to you”). The first shop was in Walsall but they couldn’t help us and suggested that we visit Nutt’s in Bloxwich. So off we went again with the satnav bleating.
Having safely deposited the machine for repair in Bloxwich we headed back into Walsall, looking for the Leather Museum. We found it after a few U-turns etc. and ate lunch first across the road at Morrison’s.
Walsall Leather Museum display – photo from Wikipedia
We had a wonderful time at the Leather Museum, and learnt loads. I was fascinating to see just how many different types of leather there are and the wide range of uses. Especially interesting was the shop, where I bought an amazing leatherworking book and a beautiful little coin purse by Whitehouse Cox. The young gentleman behind the counter was very helpful and gave us some contact details for suppliers in Walsall we could visit. Hazel picked up a leaflet about leatherworking courses so now we have another “R & D” day planned!
This little child’s chair has been handed down through our family for many generations. I can remember my grandfather reeling off a long list of names of all the children who would have sat in it. I think it dates to the early 1800’s and was originally a high chair which stood on a table/stand to be used at table or could be taken off and the stand used as a table. The stand, if it existed, is long gone and the little chair has obviously seen some hard times. One of the front legs has been completely replaced and the remaining one is cracked and has been repaired. Someone must have loved this little chair a lot to have taken so much time to repair it.
Charlotte Stephenson and her grandchildren
Here’s a photograph from around 1905 showing my great-great grandmother surrounded by all her grandchildren. My grandfather is the little boy perched on the arm of her chair and his sister stands behind him. Look closely at the little girl in the bottom right of the picture – she is sitting in the little chair.
I made a little rag rug seat pad to fit it as the old fabric had faded a lot, and have also added a little leather cushion I made as it looked just right. The cushion was made as a sample for a potential buyer but they didn’t want it. I don’t mind – it suits the little chair just fine!
There’s not been much leatherworking done this morning. Visiting the boat a few days ago I found that the engine wouldn’t start. So this morning Matt and I went round to sort things out and do some general maintenance.
Rosinante Christmas 2013
Well of course the engine starts first time for Matt! (I’d not left the glo-plug on long enough to warm the fuel when I tried). So while the engine was chugging and Matt was adding the antifreeze I started checking over in detail. Seems like a new collar is needed for the stove as the damp has worked its way in during all this horrid weather, bother, bother, bother!. The heater works and I’ve managed to top up the electricity point on the pier so we can be ready for the cold weather. I’ve done a temporary repair on the torn plastic window in the cratch (thank heavens for Duck tape). Both of us got covered in soot clearing out the stove and I managed not to fall in climbing along the gunwhales to cap the chimney off. These and other chores were not pleasurable in the driving wind and rain.
Rosinante ,Trent and Mersey, Barton Turn May 2014
We finally packed up our tools, cleaning implements etc and headed off back down the pier to the car. A fellow boater hallooed us: “Been doing a bit of dusting?”
The Leather Ladies emblem (by Haifflinch Designs)The Leather Ladies at the Hunnypotting Shed
This blog would be totally incomplete without a post about The Leather Ladies. It was my wonderful friend, Hazel (Haifflinch Designs) who found the initial source of leather offcuts that started us on the leatherworking trail. As we use the same leathers our creations combine well on stalls at craft events and pop-up shops, so we came up with the “Leather Ladies” identity.
You’ll see plenty of Tiddleyworks’creations on this blog as we go on but in the meantime, here is a taster of Haifflinch Designs.
Leather pouches, hearts and tiny mice, by Haifflinch DesignsLeather animals by Haifflinch DesignsJournals, bags and flowers by Haifflinch DesignsHazel in the Leather Ladies stall at Huddlesford Canal Gathering 2015
This was my first attempt at making a leather sleeve for my Kindle Fire. As you can see, despite my careful planning and measurements, it was still too small. So I put it to one side figuring that a use would appear for it eventually.
And it did!
With the addition of a couple of eyelets and a leather strap it became a handy little shoulder bag. I added a Sam Browne stud and a short fastening strap and we were good to go!
This is my workroom assistant, Willow cat. I think she would prefer to be known as The Manager. She enjoys supervising in the workroom while I am creating and her speciality is carefully re-arranging any small items lying around on the table. Re-arranging them on to the floor that is, and then to the furthest most inaccessible corner of the room where I will never ever find them again. I got up from my chair one day and nearly fell flat on my face. My feet were caught in the spider’s web she had woven around the legs of my chair with, of course, my strongest and most expensive thread.
Willow has been with us for some months now, having arrived via the RSPCA who found her nursing her six kittens in a shed. The kittens have been rehomed and Willow is enjoying the quiet life.
Tiddleyworking 