“SANDSTORM”
About a year ago I came up with the idea of making the perfect “personal” airport bag for myself. In the past I would use a particular book bag, but my youngest dog had other plans with that bag when he chewed up the adjustable straps. I was annoyed at first even though I knew that I could have easily purchased new straps and corrected the issue. During this brief frustration I struck up an idea that instead of a book bag that I could make a crossbody/shoulder bag. I’ve made such bags before but I wanted this one to be different than the ones I had made before.
As an artist I’m always looking to try new things. In January I created the messenger pattern and the first one I made I used tan khakis, and covered them with a litany of patches that I had acquired in the weeks prior. In February I hurt my shoulder and took a break from sewing and I kind’ve ruined my mood. It was not just my shoulder, but affected my back and neck as well. In that time I did little to no sewing and decided to use that time to learn other things. When my shoulder felt a little better( it never got back to 100%) I decided to focus my mind on other garments, like pants which somewhat intimidated me in the past. I had the idea to make two pants, one with a crazy amount of pockets, fourteen to be exact, and the one was a patchwork idea. Patchwork is always a test of patience and often times boring. But while making these patchwork pants I discovered a method that I hadn’t tried before. Instead of sewing individual pieces onto a base fabric as I did in the past, I would bast these scrap pieces and then sew over them in a grid like fashion to give another look and hopefully save some time. I’m not sure that it saved me much on time but the finished product was something that I was very proud of. About a week ago I decided to take that idea and create different type of garment.
At first I was planning on making a vest, but decided it may be best to re-visit the messenger bag idea considering that I had just made a vest. While looking for the pattern I discovered some old khakis that I forgot I purchased. I must’ve gotten them years ago when I went to thrift stores more frequently and just purchased things with the hopes of having an idea for them late.After finding the messenger patten( it got mixed up in my storage area) I decided to get to work.
MATERIALS USED
1. Three different tannish pants
2. Snap closures
3. Tan duck cloth fabric
4.Tan lining( I got lucky and thrifted a sheet)
5.14in zipper. (I’m obsessed with placing zippers inside of bags)
6. Dremel
7.White, tough thread
8.Hammer for snaps
9. Vinyl(for bag strength)
10. Hella patience
Over the last few months I’ve began to experiment more with earth tones, something I somewhat shied away from in the past. This bag is a reflection of that but I thought the idea on my head was “too neat”, and if you know anything about me I am far from a neat person. I am very peaceful but I just enjoy and somewhat thrive with chaos. This bag is a culmination of how I was feeling at the time, my interests, and my desire to make something extremely eye catching. While I made this bag I watched things from Pop the balloon, coverage of the Diddy trial, and even love island. At some point I must’ve played the new Clipse song fifty consecutive times nodding my head as if I had created the song myself. Through it all I learned a lot about my process, I established a sustainable pace and my hunger for more ambitious projects had returned.
I have a whole list of ideas and I’m a person that cosplays as other beings when I create. At this moment I feel like a musical artist creating an album called “Paparazzi”, and this is a song from it called “Sandstorm”. I often name my projects prior to and finalize a name upon completion. This project had the name “Sandstorm written on it from the very beginning. My first bag created in nearly five months is easily my favorite bag to date, not solely based on looks but what the bag and the process of making it has meant to me.