Veering off in another direction

So, of course I haven't finished that red bag yet. Instead I just had to tear into that new old fabric and make something out of it, and that's what I have been about all day today. I had this line in my head and it wouldn't go away: "You tore out my heart and you stomped that sucker flat. Et voila!

This was a lot of fun to make, and also exhausting. I actually got tired of sewing by the time I was finished with this, and I almost never get tired of sewing! Maybe I am just tired, period. I was up till about 5 a.m. Bronco, my elderly Sheltie, likes for me to be awake at 8:00. I vaguely heard his sort-of patient "Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof." this morning, but I managed to ignore it and go back to sleep till 10:00, when my alarm clock rang. Why do I set that dang thing??? It's night owl guilt. Even if I stay up all night, even if I am actually productive into the wee hours, I feel guilty sleeping past 10 a.m. What is up with THAT?

So, back to this wacky tote. It was tiring because there are a LOT of stitches in that thing. Even though I wanted it to be all wonky and deconstructed, I wanted it to be super strong, like a bookbag, and it is. It's denim, and lined with denim. And then layers of more denim and the '60's fabric over that. Then I did a lot of decorative machine embroidery all over it. I emptied bobbin after bobbin after bobbin. At least I used up a lot of partial bobbins of thread, because I just used up all the partial bobbins of any color. For the top thread I mainly used a multicolor quilting thread. A lot of the seams were a little too much for my sewing machine, and several times it screeched to a halt with an ear-splitting and teeth-knashing sound. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a heavy-duty commercial machine that would sew through anything, but my Pfaff actually eats up almost everything I throw at it. I would like to get into sewing more leather into bags, though, and I really would need a heavier-duty machine for that. (Now how did I get into shopping dreaming??) I like this bag a lot. I have such weird tastes--I do love a really pretty purse with beautiful fabric--but then I also like a funky hippie look too. I guess that comes from actually living through the '60's live and in person. My brother-in-law always referred to me as "Aunt Hippie" to my toddler nephews back then. I was actually pretty tame, and playing at hippiness more than anything. But I did love me some leather fringe, doncha know.

I made myself a suede purse back then with fringe at least 2 feet long, that I then beaded. It was a pretty cool purse, now that I think about it, and I made it without benefit of patterns, plans, or fancy sewing machine. Sewed it up on whatever Mom had then, which was probably a middle-of-the-road Singer. It seems like she usually had a Singer of some sort. Her treadle machine was a Singer, and I learned how to sew first on that. But I was never all that good at it. I would get it going backwards without meaning to, and make a big old mess. Mom sewed so many school clothes on that thing, 5 kids' worth. I remember Dad remarking how Mom was really "making that Singer SING today." I have the cabinet of that treadle machine in my sewing studio, but I don't know what happened to the actual sewing machine. I wonder if I could make it sing now?