My trusty, 3 year old gray Jansport was finally beginning to come apart at the seams, and beside, it made me look like an overgrown child. I bought not one but two great cross-body bags, but still found myself using the Jansport when I was really lugging stuff across town. So I started to look for a new backpack, but nothing in my price-range fit the bill of not looking like a child's bag and being well made. So I decided to give it a whirl myself.

The fabrics are all thrifted upholstery remnants, and the leather, I'm not totally sure where I got it from originally, but I have about 50 ovals of it in random colors, I think they might have been samples for something?

After a lot of fussing and measuring my old backpack, I had something:

I hate putting in zippers so there's a lot of snaps, o-ring straps and drawstrings instead.

Drawstring in action. It came out a little too big, next time I would downsize it an inch or two.

Put some of that leather on the bottom for reinforcement. That's where my original backpack gave out in the end.

And the back, the straps are padded with some scrap batting. Pretty comfortable, although next time I would attach them to the side seams rather than the bottom seam, the bag hangs off my back a little funny because of it.

But yeah, not so bad, and it's stood up to a good week's use pretty well so far. I'd change somethings if I did it again, but I think I learned a bit of making backpacks.
 

I started this quilt almost three years ago. I was using leftover t-shirt fabric from some clothing projects I was working on to make some tiny little 3" 4-patch blocks--the center chunk of the quilt is all of those blocks. After a while, I was busy with school, and put it aside, and basically ignored it until this summer, when I dug it out and decided to finish it at any cost.

I really did not want to make any more tiny little blocks so I bought some old black and gray shirts from the thrift store and made some border with them, and the left-over scraps of colored t-shirts I had saved.

I then sandwiched them with a black jersey knit sheet and an old comforter, and tied it together with many colors of embroidery floss.

It's very thick, and soft, and I'm quite happy, after three whole years, to have it finished!

Working on some shoes for my senior thesis.

Wing Shoes:





Recycled wool with cording, lined with wool and recycled fur. Soft, stitched leather soles.





Recycled felted wool, lined with cotton, edged and soled with recycled suede.





Suede, with welted hard leather sole and d-ring closure. Better pictures soon, hopefully.


Bench full of shoes!

It's harder to respond effectively to work that's beyond the professional level. When I see something obviously homemade, I can ask about the techniques with some hope of being able to duplicate them myself and getting a similar result. When I see something small and fast looking, again, some hope of duplicating.

When I see something like your gorgeous fabulous to-die-for coat, all that comes to mind is a regret for not having the clothing budget to offer you the $200+ the coat's worth to make one for me.

Well said!
When I see professional quality items like this one I seldom leave a comment, because I figure: 'what could a clueless one like me say that the maker doesn't already know?'.

That said: this is fantastic, and I could love to see in on a model because I'm fascinated by the shoulder line and want to see how it lands.   

Ah, that's silly. Anyone can do and make the thing's I'm working on, it just takes time and patience. There's really nothing here except the dying that would be difficult for anyone to replicate, if they happen to have the time.

These are the only real pictures I have on a model, though the shoulder's a bit obscured by the head piece, sorry! I'll try and get better shots of just that sometime. It's almost but not quite a racer back cut.

I haven't posted on here much lately, I feel like the better my work gets in context, the less it fits here, and the less response it gets, probably because it is less 'crafty' in nature.

But anyway, this one's pretty simple with some quilting, so I thought, why not. Plus I'm taking a class in portfolio documentation, so I actually have some not-terrible photos of it.






Wool was originally an army long coat, dyed black and recut. Silk was hand-dyed in shades of red, then cut and sewn into the traditional "grandmother's flower garden" hexagon patchwork. This was then formed into the lining of the coat, with batting in between, and the entirety was quilted all the way through to the outside of the jacket. Collar is a section of felted wool sweater. Button is carved out of stiff leather.

This is amazing!  I want to make one! So bad!  Is there any way I could see the wing layed out flat so I can see how it wraps?

It doesn't really 'lie flat,' there's a lot of pattern pieces, though the seams are hard to see. If it helps at all, here's some pictures in better lighting.





There's 7 pieces total, I just counted~

An experiment in cathedral window quilting in heavy wools led to the bodice. The skirt is done in needlelace techniques, though with much thicker thread. More in-progress shots are on my blog.







Hopefully once I am back in school I can get some shots on a real person!

This is truly beautiful, and eye catching. I found myself just staring at it for about 20 minutes. 
I do have a question, if you don't mind; how, exactly, did you get the texture for the front? was each feather pieced together? or was it more like a "quilting" technique to make the feather pattern on the outside?

well, anyway, it's absolutely stunning! great work!

It's a technique called 'cording' or 'Italian Quilting' where a cord is actually sewn inbetween two layers of fabric. There's no padding in it.  It is visible on both side of the garment, it's jut more apparent on the gray side. Here's a close-up to give you a better idea:

Technically all my work right now is reconstructed, but since most of it isn't t-shirt or random wacky item based, I'm just going to post it here, since it's the fabric itself I'm reusing. This was originally a Dutch army officer's jacket, and some unknown army's strange mesh tank top. All the crewel wool is pulled from old kits I've collected.
Outside:




Inside out:



I'm working with the idea of restricting the outsides of my garments to shades of grey, but the insides are hidden, so I can use a lot of color there.

Starting to work along a theme, getting ready to focus for my senior year. Working with recycled materials in grey/near grey tones and working with color in hidden areas (insides, linings, ect)

Bag is made from pieces 1 pair of French army boots, 1 Dutch army blanket, 1 leather belt, 1 shuttle of old weaving wool, recovered crewel wool, linen, and black button hole thread.






Added another angle--it doesn't really have a front or sides, it's sort of cylindrical.



Techniques included herringbone, cable, feather stitching, friendship bracelet techniques (for the side split) and cording.