Vintage Alligator Purse


i found this vintage alligator purse in portland.
i had to have it because i am loving all things animal skin.
i know.  weird.
you should have seen how fast i snagged a dyed green snakeskin picture frame at the thrift store!
people were scared!


but see that peek of original shoulder strap up there.
wish i took a better picture of how bad it was.
barely holding on....bad shape.
so i cut it off.
and i added this little new but vintage looking scarf.
just looped it thru the available hardware, tied a know, doubled it up on itself.
and voila!



a super cute usable vintage bag.
sweet!
come and touch and see it for yourself.
for sale at Smashing Rubbish.
right now.

pricing, sorting buttons, and writing a lot of overdue blog posts,
xoxoxox
jennette


To Carry

guess what?!
Smashing Rubbish can handle all your carrying/holding/containment  needs!
we have bags, cases and baskets galore!

we have repurposed leather and textiles!


we have vintage baskets!




we have upcycled fur and leather!

 


we have granny-chic!


We have travel gear!


we have slings!


we have totes!




we even have vintage leather camera bags!



bags, purses and baskets make great gifts!

come find what you need at

Smashing Rubbish
15922 Main St
Duvall, WA

Wed - Sat noon - 6
Sun noon - 5

(closed this wed and thur for thanksgiving.  will reopen friday, day after turkey day, regular hours)

restocking the shop,
xoxox
jennette
















Silver Bag

i found this silver tote bag while i was thrifting last week.  i had been coveting this one:

from Fossil
which i still may have to get. probably not, but a girl can wish.
and to spice up the thrifted pleather tote, since its not nearly as cool as the real leather Fossil one, i thought to add this fabric as an outside pocket.
well this is the piece i remembered, eventually, anyhow.  the tote was begging for an outside pocket, since it had none, in or out, but i had to go through half of my pile of embroidered pieces to rediscover this piece of some kind of hooked or crewel work on silver!  perfect match.

so i lined the soon to be pocket with muslin and pinned it in place and sewed three sides and behold, a pocket!
personally i Love shiny, silvery, sparkly things, even if it looks like a bag an old lady in florida would use, it makes me smile.

off to the smashing rubbish studios,
ta ta,
jennette



Carpet Bag

Finally finished the carpet bag!

I found this rug piece in Tucson last spring and hauled it home with me.  I also found a full size rug, perfectly worn, that I hauled home too.  Thank you Southwest Airlines for letting us each check two bags for free!  I was able to bring home a massive ton of loot!  Anyhow, here is the rug piece, as found:

Here is the piece, as found, layed out on my floor.

Here is a closer-up detail.

I used dark brown linen, from an old dress, to line the inside side.  Its hard to see but I made a pocket too.

This photo shows how I just guesstimate about where and what size I want a messenger style bag to be.  I line the entire piece first then play with bag/flap size until it looks just right to me.  Then I pin in the side/strap piece.  This time I used the brown linen for one side of the strap and some army green linen from and old pair of shorts I picked up at the Lopez Transfer Station, Take It or Leave It, over the summer. 

Here is the strap before I began pinning it to the bag.


In these two photos I am trying to show the pinning of the strap to the bag in a way that you can see how I construct it.  But these photos don't do it justice.  I basically pin the bottom of the strap to what I want to be the bottom of the bag and then sew it up the sides to the top.  In this case, I made the strap too long so I need to go back and shorten it.




So with the carpet bag finished I can move on to other projects that have been left unfinished and half started.  Still working on my jacket from a vintage pattern.  Still working on a few other bags in progress.  Still have a few dolls being embroidered.  Still have mending and tweaking on several garments to finish.  Still, still, still.  And most of it will have to wait until I am back from vacation because that is fast approaching and I have many little ends to tie up before we fly off.  I plan to show you many of the finds I have discovered in the past couple weeks.  Stay tuned.  Normal programming will resume in the New Year. 

xoxox
Jennette


Clary's Bag!

I finally finished our friend Clair's sweet 16 birthday bag!
I used this Amy Butler pattern, for the first time:

The Birdie Sling

Here is a better look at the pink, gray, black and white fabric:
And here:
It's called "the ghastlies," by The Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection 2009
I bought it at Ben Franklin in Redmond many months ago.
When I saw it I knew exactly what to do with it and for whom.  For this sweet girl, for her 16th birthday:


See!  Isn't she so cute!?  Yes, that's August with her.  This is last spring when Kirsten and I took them both to see Evelyn, Evelyn.  These two have been bffs since Clair was 9 months old and Gus was born.  Awwwwww......

So!  The bag!  Well, when I saw this fabric I just instantly thought of Clair and I had been wanting to try an Amy Butler pattern for a while so here we are.  This pattern calls for the use of fusible fleece.  Yes, fusible fleece.  I hadn't heard of it either!  It's just like fusible interfacing, but super thick.  I wasn't too sure at first.  I thought it might make it too puffy, too floofy, too big.  But it turns out, it's just right!  That clever, clever Amy Butler!  How dare I second guess her!

Here is an example of the lining pieces, interior pockets and 3 grid sizes of pink gingham I used.

The tiny grid black and white gingham I used for the band and handle.

Here is the band attached to an exterior piece.

This is how I did the square corner.  I like what this does to the shape of a bag.  I did a very similar corner on the pagoda oil painting bag, just not so rounded.  The pattern told me to fold the sewn corner like this, measure in 1.5 inches from the corner, and measure out 4 inches on each side, then attach all three points with a gently curved line.  I have tons of old tins in my studio that hold everything from crystals to buttons and this one had the perfect gentle curve.  It worked really well.

Here is the corner trimmed down to 1/2 inch seam.
Once you do this to the inside and outside, you join them together, pull the right side out, finish a seam, and your done.


A glimpse of the interior.  The pattern does not call for any closure device.  No zipper, no snap, no button.  For now I will leave it like this.

I hope Clair likes this sling!

I am going to make a few more now that I have the pattern down.  They take a bit of time but you get a great finished bag in a few hours.  Think of all the fabric combinations you could come up with for the band, handle, exterior and interior.  I am going to try some vintage army canvas cloth and leather too.
I'll post more as they are created.  Stay tuned....

Finishing another pair of pants for Jasper,
xo,
Jennette