Back in Sisters on Thursday I taught a handbag class. This was part design and composition and part general handbag construction. It was so fun to see what people did with my initial concepts. I'm all about getting it done the way you want it. Janis and I always say, "Make it Work"... a la Tim Gunn.
So when several students wanted to have larger bags or smaller bags than the original pattern I gave them, we just altered it to fit their needs. Several also wanted to do different appliques than I gave them, which was more than fine with me. It was a thrill to see what they did!
Here is the sample bag I used in class, an Emily Tote, which I have made at least 100 of. Each has been different because until I taught this class, I never made a template for the bird, I just cut them as I went.
Here is another example of one of mine. I often use velvet ribbon for the branches, but I had the students use their fabrics.
And here are some student bags. This one I just adore. Those birds are a hoot. For her bag we altered the pattern for not just size, but she also brought some really cool handles to use so we had to adjust where the magnet went and add tabs for the handles.
On this one, she did a design very close to mine and used my bird template. But you can see that she got creative too. And ... drool... Kaffe Fasset!
This lady totally did her own thing. Notice the quilting lines on the leaves etc? Doing that gives he design added texture. I do that one all of my birds and leaves.
I love this one... too cute!
And here she got super arty. It even has gold foil on it.
On this one, she used a little trick of mine to add contrast. Double up the wings with felt beneath to add an outline. Later I believe she quilted it well too.
And this last one used Full Bloom fabric! Again, a very similar design to my original. The way she cut the felt for the branches is just lovely too!
This was just a super fun class to teach. There were 18 students, I believe, and they all got into it and did their own thing which totally made me beam with pride.
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