Nearly there… Doni’s Deli bag

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I spent a few hours sewing the seams of my Doni's Deli bag. It's a little tricky, but I pinned it together and suddenly it all made sense. I decided to sew the handle edges together, but I'm uncertain about how it looks. I may tear out that seam and leave it. I had left enough fabric to create an inside pocket, but I also like letting it drape over the top. If I added a big button, it'd look pretty cute!
What's left? Maybe re-doing the handle, maybe making a pocket/adding a button, maybe adding a liner. This is one big project!

 

Fabric, drying

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Fabric, drying

Here's the full fabric for my Doni's Deli bag, drying outside in the hot sun. I have a front-loading washing machine, and I was hesitant to wash this alpaca, wool, bamboo mixture, so I did it on the hand wash cycle. Some of the loopy selvedges did even out (as promised by the experts on Ravelry), but overall, the fabric was the same. So, I got brave and tossed into a regular load on warm. It came out exactly the same. 

So, although I didn't notice the words "Super Wash" on any of my yarn, it obviously doesn't want to felt. The good news is that I have a long enough piece to try to add a pocket to my bag.

 

 

 

All of a sudden, color

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What's come over me? Bright green! Aqua! Tangerine! I'm normally a plain Jane with yarn color, but all of a sudden, I seem to want colorful, bright, cheerful yarn. The mohair may become a scarf–a very shrieking orange one. After reading a number of stories about the danger of using mohair as a warp, especially with a smaller dent heddle, I purchased that Cascade off-white cotton as the warp. The thin cotton crochet thread was a six pack. So far, it's turning into a groovy-looking, clasped-weft strap.

 

Doni’s Deli bag fabric

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It's been over two months since I warped my Emilia and started weaving the fabric for a bag like the one at Doni’s Deli. Why two months? Well, I made some beginner mistakes, which I don't have to list, but the main one was I chose sock yarn for both the warp and weft. With a 12 dent heddle I probably would have been okay, but I only have a 10 dent heddle, and it took a gazillion rows and hours (at least!) to finish the fabric, which measures 100".

Now for washing, hemming, sewing… Later. For now, I'm content to watch it come off the loom a couple dozen times. (Note, this short video is uploaded to Flickr):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29158529@N03/4929649306/

When I neared the end, I ran out of my main sock yarn and also my patience, so I dedicated the final few inches to experimenting with the clasped weft technique. If you're interested, there's a short tutorial available here, and lots of lovely examples posted on blogs.