Finished Bag

I finished my scrap bag. I didn't get the best documentation photos of the bag, but I did get some better photographs of my dress.

My cat Xingxing is my best helper. My accomplice in the woods.

I haven't carried the bag yet, but it does feel a bit awkward. I am happy with its large size though, so it remains to be seen how I will feel about carrying it for a long period of time. I am happy with how the dyed pieces look, and it as a prototype in general.

Experiments in hanging.

The dress and apron were made out of old cotton fabric that my mom found when she was cleaning out my grandparents apartment in 2014. My grandfather was moving into an assisted living home at the time, so there was a lot of organizing and cleaning to be done. My grandmother passed in January of 2010. She was an avid and very talented seamstress and made clothing for my mother when she was growing up. The fabric itself is so beautiful. It is stained from years of being folded up and in and out of positions in the sun. There are even markings that my grandmother made in black. Almost a year ago I was in Joanne's Fabrics on a whim and decided to get a pattern for a dirndl, the German traditional attire for women. It seemed fitting when I got home and thought about the dress that I use my grandmother's fabric. So its taken me this long to complete the dress...so it goes I guess. Anyway, I took some liberties in the design removed flowers around the neckline of the bodice and the strings to make the bodice tighter. There is also a shirt that is supposed to go under it. Part of the dress is machine sewn and part of it is hand sewn. I went through a lot of different scenarios in my mind for what to do with the dress (or should I say shell mockup of the dress. I still do want to make a dirndl with the pattern) but ultimately there was too much thinking and not enough action, so I had to go outside and take some photos. My grandmother was German. Her family came over from Bavaria, where dirndls are mostly worn, before the Civil War and settled in Iowa. They made uniforms for the Union Army during the Civil War. In her later years my grandmother was very involved with genealogy and her German heritage,thus it felt relevant to use her fabric for my dirndl. Plus, I have always just felt particularly drawn to having a dirndl! I don't know if it has to do with the age of my grandmother's fabric, but the way light hits it just seems so special to me. In the middle of making the dress I read portions of the English translation of the uncensored folk and fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. I linked the book in "The Horse and His Boy" post. So I am interested in the fairy tale, witch in the woods idea. I think every good witch has a faithful cat as a sidekick, so Xingxing fits right into my fantasy! The flannel shirt was given to me last October. The woods I am a part of are behind my mother's house, where I am living to save money while I go back to school. I used to think they were haunted, wild, and magical when I was a little girl.