super pleated totebag in cream!!!!!

it's super, it's pleated...........it's cream

new in my shop...

just finished the SUPER PLEATED tote bag in moss fleather.  the big sister to the super pleated clutch.
roomy enough to tag along with you everywhere but not so big it looks like you are going away for 12 weeks.  carry it to work, use it to hold knitting projects, it's great for everyday.  the pleating gives the material a certain creamy-ness.

the handles are triple stitched and attached with rivets, the inside has one slip pocket and one magnetic closure pocket, the whole bag closes with a magnetic snap.  i made myself one of these - i have been using it for a couple months and i just love the simple complication of this design, the pleating gives it movement & interest but it's kind of understated too.  that is for the most part how i like to design my bags.

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!

handmadecavalcade was GREAT!

it may look like i was bored but that is far from the truth. thanks to the amazing efforts of my truely talented and dedicated teammates of the {newnew} we had so many shoppers at the cavalcade, it was great.

i forgot my table, Kristen from Cakehouse and her bro Ben saved my day! i was still setting up when the shoppers started arriving.

the shoppers came in waves , they were all very nice i have to say. It was so exciting for me to share my love of rockaway with people who don't really know much about it and to also spike people's memories who used to spend summer's there. even better than that was debuing (is that a word?) my new handbags that i have been working so hard on over the past months.

Thank you Lisa of Fubabee for the pic!