♥ Learning to Sew! Pt1 ♥

I am finally learning to sew (yay I am getting started on my goals) and although I said I was going to start off on Jennis present, I thought it might be better to start off with something simpler. (Look it's me sewing!!)



So I am screenprinting/sewing a tote bag. I am starting with a picture that I just found online by googling 'cute skull' - (it is by ashzstock at http://ashzstock.deviantart.com/ and is free for personal and commercial use so I am not stealing) but I am planning on designing my own (yup you guessed it - cute skull) design to put on tote bags and maybe t-shirts to give as gifts/sell at markets later on down the track.

I didn't use a pattern for the bag, just cut out two squares (40 by 42cms) and a strip 124ish cm by 15cm, out of calico. Sew around the edges to stop the material from fraying.

Then I screenprinted the image on. First I printed the picture onto an A3 piece of paper three times. I cut out the skull on the first print out with a craft knife, placed it under the frame and put the fabric paint with the first colour on. Then I waited for that to dry, and took another copy of the picture and cut out the bow for the second colour. First I put white paint on for the undercoat, then when that dried I used bright pink. It now looks something like this:



Then I cut out the same sized square and strip with a coloured material to use as the lining. I found some bright pink Satin:



Then I just sewed the strip onto the two squares inside out (the corners took some tricky sewing), then I just turned it in the right way. Now it looks more like this:



Tomorrow I am going to sew together the lining, and place either cardboard or thin mdf in the bottom of the bag for it to keep its shape. Finally I need to put some handles on it and it should be done :)