The denim bag challenge is on

Yesterday I asked if anyone was interested in joining a challenge to make a bag or container of some sort from recycled jeans embellishing it using any technique available to textile practitioners. Boy did I get some responses! They are in both my mail box and left as comments. I will be listing everyone tomorrow but a big special welcome to Becky who has started Crochet and embroidery in order to be able to show us what she is doing. I am so pleased people want to join in. I really am tickled. So the challenge is on and it will be fun. The original post was prompted because Linda at Chloe’s place was agonising over how much she should embellish a bag she is making from cut off jeans.

I want to leave options open, for a wide interpretation and encourage people to use their imagination and creativity. So it’s a case of anything goes. As I said it does not have to be in any period style ie limited to a 70’s look nor is it limited to any one technique such as crazy quilting, it just has to be embellished and you can use any technique you wish. I plan to heavily embellish mine but if your personality is one of a little more restraint that is just fine. Basically it’s apart from the challenge to remake old jeans into an embellished container it’s a no rules challenge. It is as open as you wish. I proposed a 3 month deadline which means the deadline is November 8th. I suggested this because I often see challenges that are proposed over a month or 6 week period and I know that I will never meet the deadline so I never get to play! I suggested 12 weeks so that people like myself who do hand embroidery and are in the work force or perhaps are in that busy phase of life of rearing young children can join in. Anyone can join in at any stage if they feel so inclined just email me or leave a comment. The only thing is that you will have shorter period to work your bag. In other words there is no deadline to sign up just a deadline to complete.

At the end of the three months people can email me images of their work and descriptions of what they did and I will create a gallery page for all participants and host it on my site. If people complete before then and as soon as I have two or three people with completed projects I will get the gallery up sooner. As soon as images are up of course I would be announcing it here.

I plan to blog the progress of embellishing my bag so that people can see what is going on and I assume other bloggers who join in can blog their progress. This is an assumption on my part not a rule. It is just a fun thing to do, with the added advantage of pushing everyone along. People do not have to have a blog or a website you can just join in and email me a photo of the completed bag front and back and your work will go in the gallery or if you want to send photos along the way we can create a flickr group. I think it will be heaps of fun. As I said if you want to join in email me or leave a comment. The same applies for any questions you might have. If you have a website let me know so that I can cross link to it. So who apart from those who have already jumped in is up for this challenge?

Now that I have all that formal stuff Jerry is not yet aware of it but he lost his jeans. I turned the house upside down trying to find a pair of old jeans that could be chopped up but all of mine are still in a perfectly good wearable state. I did however find this pair of Jerry’s that he uses for gardening etc and even thought they are not the traditional blue but black the scissors are colour blind.

Yesterday afternoon I dragged out the sewing machine and with a cording foot corded on lines of thick thread which are about the thickness of tapestry wool or 5 ply wool yarn and stitched on a few patches. Now its ready for hand work. I plan to work this piece in the burnt colours of Australia and the colours you see as a carpet of mulch on the bush floor. I have lots of wooden beads and buttons which I hope to combine with a knowledge of highly textured stitches to embellish this bag. There will be lots of texture and what I call scrumpy bits worked by hand. Once more I plan to totally cover it.

Now I have to dash and get ready for work I will list everyone who is participating tomorrow and think of a better name for it!