Fabric and Paint Combination

This dollar store bag has been waiting patiently for me to 'see' what was going to be on it. The poor thing has already been around the block quite a few times, but it's still in great shape. And now, it has some jewelry all its own.
It looked like this when I purchased it.

The fabric for the strip on the front flap has been hanging around for a while, too. The design was easy enough to cut- I just cut 1/2" on either side of the individual strip for hemming, which was done with the iron.
Here it is, taped in place and ready to sew:

Stuffing the bag under the sewing machine was no treat, but I've managed worse. It was at this point that further embellishment came to me.

The darker triangle on the strip is where the inspiration came for the next part. I sketched out how I wanted it to look, at the exact size that would fit neatly on the webbing, on graph paper. From there, it was transferred to a piece of cardboard, with tiny holes to mark certain lines in the design, then transferred to the web. I started with fabric paint, but the colors weren't bright enough, so out came the acrylics. As you can see, they shine quite nicely.

As I was working on the web painting, the final front design shouted out. It's the same as the small web design, only larger, and done in the same acrylic paint.

These few simple things really transformed this dollar store bag, and it holds all my junk, I mean stuff, including my computer. Here's a close up of the front:

It's amazing how something so simple can turn out so satisfying.


Toodles.

Cowland Studio