Sunday, June 8, 2014

"Rendered By..." Bag and Bottlecap Magnet

The birthday party for my friend who turned 60 was a big success.  The trickiest part for me was deciding what to wear since the party was at a very nice restaurant and my standard jeans and t-shirts just wouldn't suffice.  I finally settled on a black skirt and flowered top.  Then I noticed that the top really matched the little piece I had been stitching.  So the day of the party, I sewed it up into a little cross-body sling bag.  All my others are getting worn out with use, so it was time for one or two new ones anyway. 


The chart is  is called "Rendered by.."  designed by "Little By Little".  It's stitched with DMC on 32 count Lugana.  I made a ton of changes.  The colors just didn't seem quite right in some cases, so I kept substituting.  I also simplified it to fit the size I wanted.  The alphabet was one of those old time sampler deals where some letters are missing and some are repeated.  But I saw a couple of other finishes on blogs where the stitchers had changed it to be the normal ABC's and I followed suit.  There was some odd dead space that didn't sit well with me so the butterfly and purple heart are my additions.  Of course, in the original, the words "Rendered by...' are stiched along the bottom and the stitcher can personalize with his/her own initials.  But that got left out too.

In this version, I only used heavy fusible interfacing and no batting.  It was a trial and it turned out well.  Much easier than batting actually.   After I used the bag for the party, I decided the top seemed a little plain.  So today, after searching and crocheting about 20 different little butterfly appliques, I finally found a pattern that suited me.  So the final product now has a bit of adornment.    Click here for the page of butterfly patterns where I found the one I settled on.



I saw a cute thing on Pinterest that I just had to try, a bottle cap magnet using cross stitch.  I bought a pack of 1" diameter flattened bottle caps at Joann's for a test.  One inch does not give a lot of space to work with, even at over-one on 32 count fabric.  32 / 1.4 is about 23 stitches on a side for the largest square that will fit in the circle.  (Hypotenuse is the square root of two times a leg as all good Pythagoreans know).  As luck would have it, the same day I bought the caps, I saw the new tiny mermaid design by The Little Stitcher, a freebie you can get here.  I did a pretty weak job of stretching it around a circle and centering it, but as proof of concept, I think it turned out kind of cute.  I added it to my mermaid tin and I'll be giving the tin away tomorrow so mermaid stitching is at a close for now.  There's an odd wonky stitch that shows up in that photo because it's such a close-up.  I couldn't actually see that without magnification in real life since the stitching is so tiny!


18 comments:

Jackie's Stitches said...

Love your latest bag! The colors are fantastic and I like your additions. Th bottle cap looks good too. I really enjoy seeing the variety of finishes that you often show us.

Jan said...

The bag is adorable. Wish I could sew like that.
Cute idea with the bottle caps. I expect we'll be seeing more of those.

Annette-California said...

Love your bag and pretty butterfly's! That was fast sewing!
oooh what a cute mermaid. I had seen the chart but what a fun idea to make bottlecap magnets!! Yours looks amazing.
love Annette

Jane said...

The butterflies work really well with your stitching, and I love how you have the zipper across the back. Great magnet too, great fun

Christine said...

Lovely bag, and the tiny mermaid finish is just adorable!

Mii Stitch said...

Lovely finishes! I do prefer your bag :) The colours are great and the little butterflies addition finish it off really nicely.

♥ Nia said...

Your bag looks adorable! And that tiny mermaid is just too sweet :) great idea!

Kissy said...

Cuteeeee!!
You use the bags so often that they even wear out!?! Great that they don't just sit around unused! The bottlecap is perfect for the tin and I'm glad there is still a use for this math knowledge ;-)

KimM said...

Love, LOVE the bag and the magnet. So sweet!
hugs
xxx

Vickie said...

Great job on your bag!
I love making bottle cap magnets. Problem is, ALL of mine are of poodles. ;) My husband has said no more a few times now. =)

The Inspired Stitcher said...

These are both such neat finishes! I may have to try to make one of those bags. Very nice! I've done the magnets before. I just love them too. I saw that design and loved it too. Have a great week!

Anne said...

LOOOOVE your little bag Annie!! It's adorable and the little applique butterflies add a certain pizzazz to the purse! Very sweet design too. The bottle cap is so sweet and teeny! I think it's adorable and you did a great job! Way to recycle and reuse!! Hugs!

Penny said...

What a lovely job on your bag! I love it! And that little magnet is so cute. :)

Carol said...

Your bag turned out great, Annie--love the colors! So your top was purples and blues? I'll bet you looked very nice. I always struggle with what to wear to events, too. I have a wedding shower coming up in two weeks and I'm already worrying about it--silly, I know!

Add, the teeny bottle cap stitching is so sweet. I've been saving up Tim's old beer bottle caps (they come in different colors) to stitch some tiny Christmas ornaments for. I need to search out some teeny charts first.

Oh, dear the Pythagorean theory! Not a shining moment in my school memories :)

Enjoy your week--it's just rain, rain, rain up here.

Brigitte said...

Annie, your new bag is just gorgeous. A great design ofr it and as usually you made it very special and personal with your changes. A great piece. And look at that lovely little mermaid, so sweet and tiny. And such a creative finishing.

Karen said...

Annie, I just love your purse, you did a fabulous job on it and the changes to the design are very creative. I think purses and bags are so satisfying to make, don't you? Your mermaid bottle cap is adorable, too!

Annette said...

You must had have seen so beautifull with the. Total outfit!!!
No pic for us?? Hihi
The bag is adorable!!
Hihi that cute little mermaid. Cute

Melanie said...

Bless you. That is the tiniest bit of stitching, oh my god. Very cute. Makes me want to tear off to find some caps for myself. I'm not much for big finishes of late but I think I could handle something 1" in size? lol
Very lovely bag as well. So clever!!!!