Mending a Bag

For a small exhibition organised annually in the library of our small town I created in autumn 2016 three bags with appliqué motives of books. My Janome sewing machine was very new then and one of my goals was testing as much machine stitches as possible. Many texts from fabric selvages were used and also an old printing outfit I was able to borrow from a colleague. It was very laborious but I enjoyed the work very much. 

Later, my daughter Anna chose one of the bags for herself. 

Since she has carried the bag for five years now, it became what you call “well-worn” (it's an almost weak word). The most strained parts were more than shabby, particularly the upper edge and the bottom of the bag needed a mending quite urgently.

The leather handles were attached with small screws and could be removed very easily. The body of the bag was carefully washed. The colours became brighter again and the damaged parts much more visible. Fortunately, I could find some scraps of the Quilters Shadow by Stoff – the same shade the bag was sewn from. Well, the shade was originally the same, but the bag faded out in the sun of course and my scraps (beige and black) were quite a bit darker. Since I´m a fan of visible mending, I didn´t mind and used them anyway.

The bag hadn´t originally any binding on the upper edge, now it became one. 

I considered sewing by hand but finally I decided for sewing by machine, since the outcome is more stable and sturdy. And the decorative stitch suits other stitches on the books very well. 

The bottom of the bag was a much bigger challenge. The machine sewing was not possible there, everything had to be done by hand. 

It took one evening arranging the fabric and quilting the whole bottom with running stitch, row by row. The bottom is very smooth, I like to touch it, but it´s also quite sturdy. I like the outcome very much and Anna seems to be happy with her beloved bag. 

 

Happy stitching!

Michaela