(I took this photo today in daylight - the others were taken indoors last night)
When I say that I think this is a work in progress, I am not sure.
I feel that it is missing something - but what it is I do not know or have! Yards of lace along the full length of the long handles probably - to make it look more feminine. More little beads sewn on perhaps. I am growing my stash gradually - and these things I will buy for future projects. The trouble with me is that I just get an impulse and have to act on it immediately, without any planning. I then have a rummage around and Voila - something appears! The recipient I am sure can add bits to it!
I should have waited until daylight to take a photo - and until I had 'finished' it - but as I have family staying and then a busy week, it wouldn't get posted, and I am too impatient to hear your ideas of how to improve it.
The image I printed onto material - and the image was a free one from Minds Wide Open which I have cropped to fit this project. The size of the image is just under half of an A4 size.
Have you ever tried taking a photo of an empty tote bag hanging on a wall - I have and it doesn't work as it buckles and bends no matter how hard you try.
So that is why it is laying on the back of an armchair and looking all askew.
I started with a plain tote bag, added the lace strip in the middle, which I think might have spent it's 'other life' as a tie of some sort for net curtains. I got it at a jumble sale - only one sadly - and unpicked it as it was machine sewed together in different places. It was just enough for a pretty lace panel down the centre of the tote bag.
I accentuated the flowers and some of the colours on the material print, and sewed on some sequins and little lime glass beads.
The lovely pink glittery material came from Christine thank you so much - and if you like the bag - it is yours!
The netting I cut into strips and sewed and arranged them in front and behind all around the picture before sewing it all onto the middle panel. It looks quite simple but being a beginner it has taken me hours and hours to complete.
It won't take the weight of a weeks shopping - or the full set of the Encyclopedia Britannica, but it is quite sturdy.
Does anyone have a link to somewhere I can buy plain tote bags please at a reasonable price in the UK?
