Not my best, but...

Zona had sent me this posting from someone who's looking for people to make an evening bag out of recycled, sustainable or thrifted materials. Totally up my alley. As busy as work and life has been, I can't really turn down a craft challenge. The problem is, I know I can do it, but I don't have good pics of similar stuff that I've done. I've done nice purses and bags, but that was my pre-blogging days, so I don't really have pics. Anyway, I quickly emailed some ideas and sent pics of stuff that I have done -- at least it's better than nothing. So despite a really busy weekend with visitors and other stuff I needed to get done, I managed to whip up a simple clutch. It's made out of a sari silk top that I found at my local thrift store. (I found more saris in a blue and a purple too!) It's 100% silk on the outside. The rouched part has some padding underneath to give it some more body . The inside is 100% cotton from some fabric I already had, and the trim is some leftover Indonesian batik that my in-laws brought me. I lined it with really thick interfacing to give it structure. Given the time and my own rush to try to get out a sample, I would certainly say this is not my best work by far, but it's decent I guess. And given it's already past midnight, I can't really take great photos with natural light.

I also made a more casual purse on Saturday. My godmother, who was visiting saw my crafty things and asked me to make her casual fun bag, so I whipped one up that evening using a pair of unwanted jeans. We went with one of the fun fabric remnants that I had and chose a retro-ish tech/space print. The flower was the easiest -- leftover scraps from the Shelly Tortoise project cut out and then put on a pin.