Saturday, September 23, 2006

Vintage Wool Bird Pouches





I've been kind of obsessed with zipper pouches lately. And vintage fabrics.

I had a stack of vintage wool squares that I purchased at an antique show. Perhaps someone was planning to make a quilt from them but never got around to it. I washed and dried them all to felt them and then they sat for while. I didn't know what to do next. I had LOTS of ideas of course, but was never quite convinced that I had the BEST idea for them.

Meanwhile I had been seeing little bird pouches everywhere. Mostly in the Japanese Craft books - mostly from calico-type fabrics. I liked them.

One of them had a plaid wing.

And I had plaid squares in my wool stash.

Things were starting to click.... but not quite...

The squares were really too small to make anything big enough to be useful.

So I began sewing them together. The turquoise blue next to the rust reminded me of a bluebird.... and voila - clickeroo!

The first one was tricky. Especially putting in the zipper. (The pouches are lined with 1940's reproduction calicoes.... But after that they went fairly quickly and the next thing you know - I had twelve.

I delivered them to passage and a few days later received a newsletter where the birds were featured:



Four had sold in four days. Whoo hoo!

7 comments:

Stephanie said...

oh the birds are adorable!!

Tanya Nichols said...

OHHHHHHH i love them and you POSTED....blink blink....you posted..........ehehehe
Love them, they are soo inspirational!! awesome work...

Anonymous said...

I love the bird pouches and am so glad to see you are still sewing - I dispair at times - I LOVE BPR and don't want it to ever stop, but I also love RRR and want to see more of your work. :)

Chris Wass said...

Those birdies are SO cute!

woof nanny said...

Yay, Ruby is back! I wish you had an online store or an etsy shop so your readers could have a go. I do intend to buy a BPR hoodie on payday though :)

Anonymous said...

Those are adorable!

Marsha said...

These pouches are adorable!! Gack, I confess I have failed to check the RRR blog -- you Zoot Suiters are gorgeous -- I imagine it was a fun concert!! And the T-giving photo is beautiful. [Oh, I hope you're able to delete that awful drug-sale post :(] Will write more soon -- am just returning from my holiday visit to family. - Marsha