new design - super pleated tote

i featured this style tote a couple weeks ago but didn't have the time to talk about it much, so hear it is:

i love this tote!!! i first started making hand bags with the intention of one day making a bag like this, i didn't know what it looked like in my mind years ago. it's been a process for sure. it's the fruition of everything i've always wanted in a bag for myself but couldn't afford or find.
the super pleated tote bag is a design that you could use everyday and feel like your carrying your belongings in something special. i love pleats, but i wanted to use them in an unexpected way - they are on the sides of the bag in a scattered pattern to create movement and scrunchyness.

the pleating created a really cool shape for the bag. the handles are riveted on. i wanted to keep the overall look simle by leaving out o rings and d rings and buckles.

the inside of the bag has 2 pockets. the outside is made from reclaimed leather and the interior is made with organic canvas.

printing elbow and much more.....

my elbow is killing me. i can only think that it's from a print job i did for a local church here. 200 shirts in one day all by myself, woe is me (it took me a couple tries to spell woe).

in other news, i'd like to share the process in which i make new screenprints. as you know they are mostly if not 100% inspired by my surroundings and in keeping with that here is the story about building houndstooth:
i really love the houndstooth pattern. i have a pair of flip flops from reef that are houndstooth patterened and they rocked, super rocked. but one of them broke......le sigh.
so i created a new pattern, it's houndstooth but the shape for the pattern is made from this picture of the dayton towers building in my town of rockaway:

so from here i used my trusty computer to create a houndstooth design and cut it out from a spot on the picture:

the next step was to take this and turn it into a pattern:

after that i printed it out on transparency film, and used the film to create a screen, which i used to screenprint this design onto my fabric and then i sewed my fingers to the bone to create bags like these:

and that's that!