Latest project

I found myself in need of a small bag, just large enough to hold my cell phone and bus pass. I wanted something that I could hang off my wrist. I couldn't find anything I liked, so I made one using fabric from a pair of jeans Youngest could no longer wear. Here's the end result.

There was very little planning made for this, especially with the beading. I really didn't know what I wanted to do when I started. I traced around my cell phone - front, sides and back - on some paper to get the dimensions I needed, adding a couple of few inches to the back panel for the flap. I cut side panels, but no bottom, so it comes to a sort of point. It's slightly rounded because of how the side panels fit into the seam.

I decided to stitch beads along the front seams, extending them around the top and edges of the flap, with three beads on the thread. The beads lay down diagonally close together, and ended up looking a lot better than I'd imagined, so I left them like that. I didn't want to have a clasp of any kind on the flap, which meant I needed weight to hold it closed. I did horizontal netting for the fringe, using the stone chips for the extra weight. I then did a couple of rows of horizontal netting on the bottom edge, switching to vertical netting for the part with the stone chips, just sort of making up the pattern as I did the rows.

Next was the wrist strap. I used the strap on my camera (which is what gave me the idea to do a wrist bag in the first place - I find it very handy to use a wrist strap) to determine the length. The strap is very plain, using the same fabric as the bag itself. Unfortunately, attaching the strap to the back was more difficult than I expected - the folded layers of fabric made it hard to manipulate, and it ended up being slightly off center. That mean that, when worn, the whole bag sagged slightly off center, and the flap no longer covered the top. So I added a round bead of the same stone as the chips and made a buttonhole in the flap for it. If I'd known I was going to need that, I would've done the button hole before the beading. It was a real pain, and I'm not happy with how it turned out. There was no real alternative, though.

Now that it's done, I will be using it for the first time tonight. :-D