Last project with my favorite fabric

I really enjoy finding remnants of upholstery fabric on clearance at fabric stores. There’s just something about certain upholstery fabrics that I like.  My enthusiasm began when my mother made me a great costume partially from upholstery fabric for a high-school production of Romeo and Juliet. I was the best-dressed person on stage. 🙂  (But no, I did not play Juliet!).

I have made several things from this remnant of upholstery fabric: a gig bag for my psaltery (see Ophelia helps me with the gig bag);  a drawstring bag that was supposed to hold an archery prize until the competition was canceled; and now a large shoulder bag with a matching mini-bag for the new outfit I’m wearing on Twelfth Night.

I only have enough left of this great material to make another drawstring bag. 😦 Oh well, all good things come to an end.

Here are some pictures, first of the gig bag for the psaltery, in various stages of completion (with my late cat Ophelia’s help). This project was a real pita because I hand-sewed the entire thing, with its four layers:  inner and outer upholstery fabrics, and two layers of foam:

The drawstring bag that was intended to hold an archery prize for a competition that got canceled:

Here are the shoulder bag and a little bag to go inside it, which I just made. They both snap shut, even though that’s not period. The shoulder bag is almost finished except that I have to sew the straps onto the body of the bag:

One of the great things about this fabric is that it is double-sided:

You can tell my preference for the darker side from that fact that I made the gig bag and the shoulder bag as well as its little bag with that side facing out. The choice as to which side to use for the drawstring bag, on the other hand, was made by the archery marshal who was in charge of the competition. He preferred the lighter side.

Here’s my dress for Twelfth Night, which I did not make. I think the shoulder bag I’m making will look very good with it. I will also have a ‘Birka’ bag for the event. Birka was a major Viking trade center in Sweden.

The dress was made in Belarus. I found it at an Etsy shop called NornasMystery.  See Waiting for new Viking clothes  and My new Viking clothes came! It reflects the Viking Rus’ culture.

And now, for something completely unrelated, here is a picture of the replica 18th C. ‘pirate’ flintlock that I got for my pirate costume at Halloween. 😛

Although, actually, my bow ‘socks’ and archery bag are made from upholstery remnants too, so I guess there is some connection after all. 🙂