carpet bag

New Carpet Bag Finished!

| Tiddleyworks
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Red and tan tapestry carpet bag

It’s done!  I’ve been finishing the stitching and eyeletting this morning.  (The eyeletting is an hilarious process – involves a very heavy duty wooden bread board, metal dies, a Brummagem screwdriver (hammer) and not hitting thumbs etc.  Talk about kitchen table enterprise!

What I love about these bags, and why I’ve been making and using this design for 18 months or so now, is the SPACE.

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Red and tan tapestry carpet bag interior

Loads of room for all the creative clutter I tend to carry around with me.  The materials used and the fact that the tough leather strap has 8 support points through the eyelets, means it takes a lot of weight.  Not good for my shoulders in the long term but handy when needed.

Just got the leather strap to finish tidying up and then it’s good to go!

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New red and tan tapestry and leather carpet bag

New Carpet Bag

| Tiddleyworks
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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.

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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.

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“One I made earlier”
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“One I made earlier” interior

So here goes – I’ll be back when I’ve finished so you can see what it looks like.

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New carpet bag materials (2)

Carpet Bags

| Tiddleyworks

I’ve made quite a few of these bucket-style carpet bags. They are strong and sturdy yet light to carry and are so easy to use. 

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Floral tapestry and leather carpet bag
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Floral tapestry bag interior
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Navy tapestry and leather carpet bag

I’ve been “roadtesting” the first model of the navy tapestry bag personally since November last year.  It’s been everywhere with me but is showing hardly any signs of wear.
Recently I bought some very nice leather remnants to trim more bags but then this happened…

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Leather carpet bag

This was a self taught crash course in sewing leather and there was a lot of swearing involved!  I learnt some useful tips, like stapling pieces of leather together to hold the while sewing (outside the seamline where the marks won’t show); stitching down either side of seams to make the seam allowances lie flat; using a proper leather needle and generally taking things slowly and carefully.

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Reverse of leather carpet bag

I lined it with lovely blue heavyweight textured velvet furnishing fabric (thankyou again, Hazel!).

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So now the navy tapestry bag is in temporary retirement as of course I simply have to roadtest this one!
Some of my carpet bags are currently for sale in my Folksy shop, http://www.folksy.com/shops/rozzynanty.