This is the last of the 7 handbags I made for my mother-in-law to give as holiday gifts to her employees (and a niece).
When I bought this yarn, I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I just loved the color. Actually, that's how I buy most of my yarn. So one day I took all these different colored strands of yarn to the fabric store and tried to find matching fabric to use as linings. When I found this burst fabric, I about freaked.
First of all, I'm silly for dark grey. It's one of my favorite colors. So, to find a fabric with a dark grey background was cool. When you add bursty flowers in blues, electric lime green, and white, it becomes irresistible to me. This is another bolt that I pulled off the shelf and dragged around the store so no one else could take it.
Strangely, there is no absolute teal in the fabric when you get up close, but somehow it matches the yarn perfectly.
At first, I tried embroidering directly on the handbag, but you really need the dark grey background to make those colors pop. The lime floss was just swallowed by the teal yarn. As you can see, I ended up cutting out charcoal felt circles and embroidering on them. In the middle of the two big circles are stitched-on sequins. Then I added in some of my favorite sequins to balance everything out.
Making these seven handbags for my mother-in-law was a great learning experience for me because I discovered several things:
-- I have a much more solid feel for what does and doesn't work for me. I'm going to be much more confident when picking out fabrics and choosing embellishments in the future.
-- Making these handbags feels good in a way that most jobs never will or could. I am going to do everything I can to keep this part of my life growing.
-- Even though I have a full-time job, I can get a ton accomplished when I'm focused and motivated.
Completing this craft-challenge has given me the determination to be more ambitious. I'm excited about my crafty plans and I can't wait to see where all of this leads.