A REPAIR JOB, AND EXCITING NEW STASH FROM EBAY

A repair job – my hubby’s leather pouch

I had to put aside my Bonnie Baggie project last Friday night because I had a repair job to do for my hubby. He always has a leather pouch attached to his belt for his bits and pieces, including his syringe kit in case he gets stung by a bee – he is very allergic to bee stings. A little while ago they changed the design of these syringes and the package is now a lot bigger than it used to be, and he managed to find a new pouch which would accommodate it. It’s an attractive black leather one with a tooled Celtic design on the front.

It had two straps on the back for the belt, but they were rather large and baggy and he never liked them much, and they weren’t sewn on that securely, and recently one of them came away. He had mended one previously, with great difficulty, and when the other one failed, this time towards the bottom of the pouch, he was really struggling to mend it, despite using my leather mending kit and a curved needle. The leather is extremely thick and tough.

I said the easiest thing would be to take the pouch apart in order to access the repair. I asked if he would like me to do it and he agreed. I thought the project would be a doddle – cutting the little straps shorter and making new holes, and re-attaching them, but in the end it was an absolute nightmare. The leather straps are very thick and after I’d cut them to length, when I needed to bend them a little to make an arch shape to make room for the belt, they wouldn’t stay put, despite attempting to hold them with glue. I found a clamp in my studio and this helped greatly.

However, I managed to break 6 needles in the process of this repair! When sewing in existing holes it wasn’t too bad, but the holes I made, with the aid of a machine needle designed for leather, held in a wooden handle (part of Dad’s leather kit which I inherited), were quite small, and on the rough side of the leather, were very difficult to see.

I got to the point around 1.30 a.m. when I was prepared to give up, but I said to myself that I’d put my hand to the plough and wouldn’t quit! After repairing the first strap, the second one wasn’t so bad, and sewing up the sides of the pouch again were a doddle by comprison.

I finished around 3.15 a.m. – determined to get the job done so that my hubby would find it when he came down for breakfast in the morning.

He is thrilled with the result and says it is better than it ever was, even when new! How satisfying is that?

So – I ended up with 6 broken needles and two aching hands, a very late night and feeling pretty rough the next day! Worth it, though!

More new stash…

Not much hope for Shoshi… I’ve been a naughty girl. I’m afraid I’ve succumbed… Despite my previous resolution to use the new Bonnie Baggie project as an opportunity to make major inroads into my stash, I’ve been on Ebay… I ordered more lace and trimmings and some junk jewellery! Oh well… Just have to make LOTS of stuff now! I don’t get out much and it’s only rarely that I manage to visit any charity shops, where I would look for things like this, and there are some real bargains on Ebay with job lots of junk jewellery, some of it broken, odd earrings etc. etc. Even if some of the stuff in the bundle is not useable, there will always be something, and there are always beads, bits of chain, jump rings and other jewellery findings which can go into one’s stash for future use.

All the stuff arrived from Ebay today, and I couldn’t be more delighted. These bundles were really good value for money, and there really isn’t much among them that I won’t be able to use in one form or another.

Lace and trimmings

White lace

Although I have quite a lot of lace in my stash, stored in one of my vintage suitcases, I was short of large motif white lace which I could cut up into individual motifs. I have a large lace tablecloth on order but that isn’t due to arrive till the end of the month. In the meantime, I bought a single white fabric doily with an absolutely gorgeous lace border which I planned on removing.

The lace border is quite wide, and to accommodate the circumference of the doily, it has been pleated at each point.

I thought it would be a doddle to remove the lace, but it turned out to be a very long job as I had to take great care not to cut the lace. Being white-on-white, the stitches were quite difficult to see, despite being a fairly wide zig-zag, more visible on the reverse. The fabric in the centre has a self-pattern which made the stitches less visible, too. I ended up having to unpick it virtually stitch by stitch, and it took several hours, but so worthwhile in the end, as the result is a long piece of absolutely glorious lace, over a yard long, with the potential for being able to cut off separate motifs as required.

The fabric centre now looks like this.

As you can see, there is quite a pronounced crease across the centre (which I hope I shalll be able to press out) and the fabric frays quite badly. The self-pattern is qite interesting, and I thought if I stabilised it with iron-on interfacing, it could be useable.

Black and grey lace

Another deficiency in my stash is black lace – I have only a very small quantity of this, so I ordered a bundle of black and grey lace from Ebay.

All of this is gorgeous, and good long lengths, too. These are the lengths of black lace.

The grey lace with the ribbons.

Gold beaded trimming

As a one-off, purchased by the yard, I got this length of beaded gold tremming, as the only piece I have in my stash with beads dangling from it is larger scale and the pendant pieces are too far apart to be used on small projects.

Junk jewellery

First batch

These bundles come in a glorious muddle, with quite a few of the chains and beaded necklaces etc. being quite tangled together, so I had some fun sorting it all out. This is the first batch immediately after opening.

I sorted both bundles into different categories and put them into ziplock baggies to store them.

These are the single motifs – brooches, single earrings, pendants etc., which can be used as focal points on baggie projects, or for embellishing album covers.

Bangles, and a broken watch.

I am not sure how much use I can make of rigid bangles but the wire one can have its beads removed, and I can take the strap off the watch. The narrow sparkly turquoise one is broken and only part of a circle. I think this could be straightened out and couched onto a baggie as a border element. I may be able to remove the braided elements from the wider bangle.

Oddments from the first batch. There are scraps of fabric with sequins sewn on, and various beads, and some gems, and a couple of wire ornaments, one of which is on a hairpin. These can be taken apart and all the elements used.

Various necklaces, chains and a good length of black cord consisting of two pieces knotted together. There is lots of potential here.

There was also quite a large bag of mixed loose beads, visible on the left of the first photo. I haven’t sorted through these as yet.

Second batch

This was the more exciting of the two bundles. Here it is in its unsorted state, after I tipped it out of its plastic bag.

Chains.

Bead necklaces. All these can be taken apart and the beads used separately, and the longer, thinner ones could be used as baggie straps.

Pendants. These can be used as single motifs and focal points, and the chains used elsewhere. The one on the left is very big and heavy and would not be suitable for small neck purses, but could be a dramatic focal point on a larger bag, or on the cover of a book.

There are several complete necklaces (well, more or less complete – you can see that there are some missing beads on the centre one in the following photo). All the rectangular pieces on the left-hand necklace are simply strung on the cords and can be removed, and as for the one on the right, it is so full of glorious dangles that I hardly know where to begin!

There are plenty of useful elements on the necklaces in the above photo. Great beads, dangly bits and mounted gems which can be taken apart and used separately.

Bracelets.

Again, many elements that can be separated and used.

Finally, the oddments from the second bundle, including a small bag of charms which I have not yet examined closely. Some of the items in this batch are not particularly useful but I shall keep them in case inspiration strikes in the future!

All these deliveries make up an absolute treasure trove of useful material and I am more than delighted with what I have got. It is hard to see from the Ebay photos the details of what you are getting in any given bundle as they are generally photographed as-is and not sorted, so it’s a bit of a lottery, but I think I have made a good choice with both these bundles. Together with the new lace (and the table cloth to come) I shall have plenty of material to play with!

Watch this space to see what I do with all this stuff. I am not taking everything apart immediately, but will do so on an ad-hoc basis as the need arises. This way, I will still retain complete pieces which I may want to use in a different way further down the line.

Flat back pearls

While I was on Ebay I also ordered a pack of mixed flat back pearls for mixed media work. I wasn’t too fussed about what colour they were because I shall most probably gesso over them and paint them, but I chose neutral shades in case I wanted to use them “au naturelle.” I’ve never had any of these in my stash and they are quite useful and versatile.

Bonnie Baggie No. 2 – progress report

I have nearly finished Bonnie Baggie No. 2 and will be posting about that soon. All it still requires is a handle and the addition of some leather tassels. I have some eyeglass cords on order and will most likely use one of these for its handle/strap, so I shall wait till they arrive before I upload the post about that.