You're Tote-ally Awesome - a Makeful DIY challenge

If you have been following me on Instagram you may have noticed that I have mentioned the Makeful community and Makeful TV a number of times. I was one of the first maker's to join the Makeful community last year and I have been encouraging all of my creative friends to sign up and join Makeful.

I recently received a simple cotton canvas tote bag in the mail from Makeful. Their logo was screen printed in the bottom corner of the bag and it came with a note inviting me to have some fun with the bag and transform it into something beautiful ... and so I did.

I spent a long time figuring out what I wanted to do with my bag. I knew I my direction would be something floral design with a creative quote but I wasn't sure what medium I wanted to use on my bag. Should I paint? Or maybe, sew? Or add an image using iron on transfers? 

I ended up doing a little bit of everything and I'm pretty happy with my final tote bag.

I started off by painting a quote with Martha Stewart's gold glitter paint. I should tell you that I added Martha Stewart's tintable fabric medium to all of my paints in this project.

Next I used a disappearing fabric pen to roughly draw out my flowers before I started painting my overall design.

I wanted my floral design to be colourful and fun. I created a cup sleeve a little while ago for my reusable Starbucks cup which you can see in the first photo, and it was the inspiration for my colours on the bag.

After painting the flowers I decided to sew some of my vintage buttons to the bag using different colours of embroidery floss for visual interest and for a surprise functional reason. You see I could not stop at just decorating the outside of the bag. I had to add some details to the inside of the bag as well. 

I added a felt pocket inside the bag to store smaller items like pencils and business cards. I also added an iron on transfer as a label so everyone would know that I created the bag. 

Above you can see my felt pocket and flowers  before I added them to the inside of the bag.

I sewed two large buttons inside the bag to hold the pocket. I sewed two button holes on the felt pocket. Once the pocket was attached to the inside buttons, I wanted to make sure that the pocket did not fall off the buttons easily, so I cut out two felt flower shapes with tight button holes and placed them as shown (above bottom right).

And now I'm off to enter my tote bag to the Makeful weekly challenge. If you sign up to be part of the Makeful community you can enter the weekly challenges as well or just check it out for inspiration! Either way, get ready to be inspired. 

You can check out more totebags from this weekly challenge at #toteallymakeful #bemakeful.

inspiration - Tinsel Trading Company, New York

While I was in New York the other week, I stumbled upon this beautiful and inspiring shop at 1 West 37th Street called Tinsel Trading Company. I love antiques and vintage findings and this store has it all ... you would think that you just travelled back in time to the 1940's when you walk inside. I took a couple of pictures of the store windows but I think I would have shot another dozen pictures if I was not in such a rush to get inside to see all  of the treasures! This store has vintage European notions - threads, buttons, ribbon, metallic trims and fringes - that have been sitting (mainly unused) in the basement of this store since the mid 1900's. Check out Tinsel Trading Company's website for more details about it's history at http://www.tinseltrading.com/aboutus.html

Here's my friend Karen sitting in from of a wall of trim ... and here's some more pictures from inside the shop ...

We only had carry on luggage with us for the trip so I could only purchase a couple of things ...

here I am in the cash desk after making my purchase - a container of German "Emporium Pure Glass Glitter",

silver metallic thread (on it's original wooden spool - so cool!), a glass jar full of vintage buttons (I've collected vintage buttons for years and this is the biggest stash of pink pearl buttons I've ever seen at once) and a book called "French General Treasured Notions" by Kaari Meng.

 

The book was just published and it is all about crafts that were inspired by notions from this store!!! I saw the book at a bookstore in Grand Central Station about an hour earlier and decided not to buy it as I figured I could get it at home. Of course, I HAD to have it after being in the store. Unfortunately, the store was having a book signing the next day and we would be back home in Canada ... so I was unable to get my book signed (no autograph from Martha Stewart that day either ... good thing I didn't buy any lottery tickets that day!). Oh, that reminds me, if you check out the Tinsel Trading Company's website you will see that Martha loves this store too and it has been featured on her show and in her magazine quite a bit.

There is a little sequined bird project in the book that I think I will have to try ... as well as a button charm bracelet ... but the most inspiring part of the book for me right now is the photography and the graphics! I'm trying to put together a couple of small memory books from our New York trip and I'm going to give the memory books a vintage theme inspired by Tinsel Trading Company's visual displays and notions.

If you ever go on a trip to New York City ... I highly recommend visiting this store ... it is walking distance from both Times Square and Grand Central Station.

 

The store also reminded me to dig out one of my vintage button projects that has been collecting dust waiting to be framed. I sewed vintage buttons to a piece of heavy weight handmade paper (the paper is 30" x 23") ... it took me about 2 summers to complete it (as I only worked on it on rainy days at the cottage) ... hopefully, we will be going to the Christie Antique show later in May and I can find a suitable frame for it.