Inspired by My Shoes

These are my favorite shoes. My purple Gianni Bini ballet flats with zig-zag stitching. I love these shoes! They have so much personality and are so unique that I will most defiantly cry when I finally have to give them up. Which won't be until they have holes in them and I manage to find something just as special to replace them. I was wearing them the other day and carrying one of my juice pouch purses when I was hit with inspiration.
No, it didn't hurt. Getting hit with inspiration just kind of tingles.
The shinny finish of the shoes is the same as plastic juice pouches and the deep purple color with zig-zag stitch and cheerful raspberry trim have the same feeling as juice pouch purses. Quirky, fun, and stylish. They inspired me to make a purse that had the same quilted look that the zig-zag stitch gave the shoes. Making and old, classic look, new and modern.
But how do I do that?
I began by deciding that my purse would have a classic diamond pattern to make it look quilted. And what else would make it look quilted but the thing that makes a quilt a quilt. Batting. The stuff that is sandwiched between two layers of pieced together fabric and gives them that comfy, cozy feeling.
Piecing together the juice pouches like the fabric of a quilt was no problem but how to include the batting was. After much consideration and a trip to the craft store to get the batting I decided that the batting would have to go inside the pouch itself. Each juice pouch would be stuffed with a piece of batting cut to size but before they were stuffed I had to create the pattern that I would follow for the stitching.
I think that now is a good time to introduce one of my must have tools. A clear quilting grid ruler. The one that I have is an Omnigrip by Omnigrid, it measures 12 inches by 6 inches (which is plenty big enough for juice pouches), and it has a texture on the back side which grip the juice pouch and keeps it from sliding. It is a wonderful tool that helps me to measure juice pouches, make straight lines, and diagonal lines. If I add a cutting mat underneath I can run my cutting tool right down the edge. This tool made drawing the diamond grid on the back of my juice pouches a snap.

After all my guidelines were drawn I putting the batting in the center of each juice pouch and I used the sewing machine to stitch down every line. Making that classic quilted look. One thing that I have learned from stitching 20 juice pouches to make diamond pattern is that it is better to use a smaller needle for stitch work. People have asked me before if I use a special needle. I always tell them no and they are always surprised. This goes against the logic of having to sew such a heavy material but now I know why this is true. A smaller, sharper needle goes through the plastic easier with less resistance.
For very thick seams that are harder to sew through a larger needle may be needed, but to do decorative work a smaller needle is better. Listen to the sound of sewing juice pouches. If sewing your juice pouches sounds like you are popping bubble wrap then your needle is too thick. You can also tell that your needle is too big by looking at the underside of the juice pouch that you just sewed. If the thread looks like it is swimming in the hole that the needle made and the hole is raised a bit around the rim then your needle is too big.
By the time I figured this out I was over halfway through the pouches. Sometimes I'm not too quick to figure these things out but that is how these things go. I have sewn hundreds of items but I never stitched in a straight line long enough to see what my needle was doing. I never know what I will end up with when I try something new. As I found out later when I was piecing the purse together and came across a dilemma.
I thought that the purse would be entirely made up of the colorful juice pouches to mimick the rich color of my shoes. But when I laid them out I discovered that the quilted effect stood out more on the back side of the pouches and was a little lost in the busyness of the juice pouch. What to do?

After about an hour of contemplation I decided to incorporate both sides of the juice pouch. Then it was back to sewing. I finished the basic structure of the purse. It will probably take me another two days to figure out the perfect handle and then one more to decide how to attach it. The decision making process always takes more time than the production of the piece but the end product is worth it. In the end I will have a fabulous bag inspired by a fabulous pair of shoes. But this purse, unlike the shoes, I will be willing to part with. The only thing that makes me happier than finishing a wonderful piece is finding someone who loves it too.

When this piece is finished it will be posted to the gallery and available for purchase in my Etsy Shop. LLDesignJuicePouches.etsy.com
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