As you may remember, the class was focused on costume making, especially for theatrical productions. Usually, that meant we were making garments to wear, but costumes aren't all shirts and pants. Accessories are just as important! For my second project, I decided that I'd be making an accessory, in the form of a large tote bag.
I wasn't about to make just any old tote, though. It was supposed to be part of a theoretical costume, after all, so I had to put some thought into it. I looked around for inspiration (read: dug through the available fabrics) until an idea came to me. I was going to make a tote bag inspired by the look of the leaf mimic butterfly, Kallima inachus.
(Photo from Australian Geographic)
It looks... like a leaf! Shocking, I know. You may be wondering why I would want to design anything based off of this drab insect, but this is only half the story. For you see, while the outside of the butterfly's wings are brown and leafy, the insides are much more striking.
(Photo from Wikipedia)
Now that's a pretty butterfly! I liked the idea of making a bag that was drab on the outside, but had a bright, colorful lining fabric, just like this butterfly's wings. I imagine it could be used by a character who's usually a wallflower, but has some sort of wild hobby or secret.
Unfortunately, I don't have any planning or process pictures for this bag. I used a pattern from a book, but it was borrowed, and I didn't think to write the name down for future reference. Truth be told, the book's pattern wasn't very clear: it had me put pieces together in the wrong order, and even included pieces that were totally unnecessary. I could have drafted out a simple flat-bottom bag pattern myself and saved a headache.
Back to the design, though, I picked out a number of fabrics in order to achieve the butterfly effect I desired. I chose a flower-camo print canvas for the outside of the bag. It was dull enough to be unassuming, and I liked the added detail of the camouflage shapes being flowers instead of the usual blobs. For the lining fabric, I picked a really nice satiny teal lining. I would have liked to get closed in color to the actual butterfly's wings, but I couldn't find anything that quite fit, and the teal was just too pretty to pass up. I also used the lining fabric to create straps. Next, in order to bring in some of the contrasting yellow-gold color on the butterfly's wings, I found some metallic ribbon trim, which I added to the straps and around the inner edge of the bag. I sewed it all together, and viola!
Don't let this tote's understated outside fool you. Just like the leaf butterfly, it's got a colorful secret inside! The bag was perfectly complete as it was, but as you might have noticed, I decided to pay a little extra homage to the butterfly that inspired it in the form of some cross stitching. It was my first time doing cross stitch on linen instead of canvas, but I think it turned out pretty well regardless!
And there we have project number two of my spring series. Stay tuned for the grand finale, which will hopefully be out on time next week. Until then, stay crafty everyone!
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