Up-cycled and recycled

I am quite pleased with this cross-body messenger type bag I have made. It is a fusion of a really knackered and nasty men's leather 'donkey' style jacket and a most unattractive leather bag, both bought in charity shops for £4.99 and £3.99 respectively. I revived the leather parts I wanted to use with a hefty dose of Dubbin and a renovating treatment in black, plus plenty of rubbing-in to soften it all. I sewed the leather and zips using a combination of a walking foot, roller foot and Teflon zipper foot, depending on the seam I was working on.
The flap and strap are from the handbag and the body is made from the jacket back. The off-cuts were useful for straps and edgings on other projects. I carefully prised the magnetic fastening off the old handbag and re-mounted it on the 'new' front, and reused the metal strap fittings. I added some rivets to strengthen the strap mounting (they had been in my work-box since the 1980s judging by the packaging). The double puller top zipper was salvaged from a broken sports bag, and the internal one came from my horde of zips un-picked from clothing that is worn past wearing.
I then added a new lining in a polyester dark navy brocade which I had bought from Fabricland a number of years ago (not originally an expensive fabric). I including a phone pocket and zipped inner pocket to organise the interior. The brocade was from my fabric pile - so yes, not recycled!
I also purchased three new zip-pullers, which cost £8.97 but give the bag a professional finish.
One last treatment to cover the effects of working on the leather, and the darken open edges, and it looks good, even though I say so myself.
So taking the coat, bag, lining and zip pullers, my lovely new recycled/upcycled leather messenger bag cost me around £20.

Brioche stitch

I am playing with this stitch, in particular it's parallel with machine knit Fisherman's Rib (Cardigan Stitch). I have been helped in this by Nancy Marchant's 'Knitting Fresh Brioche'. The title makes me feel hungry, I can smell buttery brioche and croissant just mentioning it!  However, I digress. 'Knitting Fresh Brioche' is a very useful book in which Nancy writes about two colour brioche in depth. 

As a designer I particularly like the fact that technique and stitch variations are explored and explained whilst garment patterns are kept to a minimum.  

TV interview about widening diversity of bodies that are acceptable in fashion

I was pleased to be invited to meet with Elesha and fixers.org for a TV programme where we discussed how important it is to increase diversity of body shape and size on the catwalk and in mainstream fashion. 

http://youtu.be/L97aW1HupGI

http://www.fixers.org.uk/home.php

The one that got away from AllSaints

I was lucky enought to find this charming old Reynolds sewing machine in a boot sale. the wooden base has obviously been sat in water, so has some damage, but only slight. I was thrilled to find a bobbin in the machine and a spare in the accessory box along with a couple of new needles. After a thorough oil it works fine, and looks lovely.

Make do and mend

I went to the Brighton Repair Cafe yesterday as Ross wanted to mend a pair of boots that had split apart at the heel. 

I ended up chatting to Sue Craig (Knitting the Map) and Tom of Holland. He was helping someone darn a sock. 

Ross bought a lovely striped wool jumper in a charity shop on the way home. Sadly 2 moth holes in the front. I was inspired by the ethos of the Repair Cafe, and have just darne the holes. Difficult matching the colours., but after digging in all my yarn stashes the match isn't too bad. Rather pleased with the result 

I can, of course, only hope to improve. 

I also got a real kick out of helping a teenage girl sew a patch on her jeans whilst learning how to use a machine machine. 

Digital knit design

Having spent the day teaching digital knit design to students my head is reeling. It makes me realise how complex and multi-layered my knowledge is. 

Designing a stitch pattern is the 'surface learning', ie 'which stitch should be what colour in order to convey my desired colour pattern', its the texture, formed by stitch structures that add the complexity, let alone knowing how the machine performs the knitting functions and translating the stitch pattern into 'knit speak'.

The proof photos of the last items for the latest book are coming back soon. I'm looking forward to seeing them as my own photos, whilst they look good when I take them, never match the great quality of the professionally taken ones.
The illustrations make such a difference to a (and I hate to use this word) 'craft' book. I've worked on quite a few, and had very different experiences.

• taking my own (difficult setting up space with good lighting, not having professional kit, limited knowledge of photography)
• with a semi-professional at home with minimum studio kit (OK experience - although the dogs were a bit of a bind, but the lighting was not good, and the final photos dull)
• with a professional photographer in a commercial studio (exhausting and exacting expereince, great images; strong, vivid and clear, if a little sterile)
• on location with stylists, models and a professional photographer with all the kit (periods of intense boredom whilst everything is shifted around, lighting sorted etc,  freezing cold, lots of lugging equipment about and a challenge keeping knitting neat on location, interesting and well lit photos)
• in a professional photographer's own location-based studio (aesthetically exacting, able to be more flexible, easier to keep knitting looking good, marvellous exciting images).

From this I guess you can tell which I thought was the most rewarding experience. However, the photos were for different purposes, some were for pattern book illustration, and some for technical knitting, so may not be fully comparable.

It is clear to me that the 'author takes photos' option has the following disadvantages:

a) can be challenging and often inappropriate for the author's skillset
b) more often than not, results in poor quality images

But it has the following advantages:
a) author retains control of content
b) cheap for the publisher - whether a commercial publisher or self-publishing


As a further observation, it is crucial for good 'how to' books to have big pictures. In the example I mention above, of using semi-professional photos taken at home, the poor quality of the photos was compounded by the layout design cramming them into small frames at the side of text.  At first I thought these should have been cropped so that more detail showed, but realistically the photos were original framed poorly so that they couldn't be cropped without loosing content/context - hence the disadvantages of not using a professional photographer.
Having said all this, I am sure some authors take brilliant images and use them very well in books, these are just my personal experiences and observations. I suppose its a moan to publishers really, if they want a great 'how to' book, they need to invest in good photography and give space in the layout for images to be large enough to warrant their investment.
So my advice to other authors (for want its worth), is to persuade your publisher to shell out for professional photography and illustrations whenever and wherever possible.