Sewing Pottery II

 

I have made a second pot using strips of fabric wrapped around clothesline.  I learned this technique in the book, Sewing Pottery by Machine.  I have discovered two things.

1.  These are not terribly difficult, but they are terribly time consuming. 

2.  Because of 1., I wont be making any more of these anytime soon.

 

The basket I chose to make has three pieces.

 

The way you make these baskets with a hole in the top is to use a flat disc the size of the hole you need.  In this case it is a 2 inch disc, the one in blue.

There is a bit of fiddling to make sure the opening of the bottom piece matches exactly to the opening of the middle piece.

Then you use a seam ripper to remove the flat disc.  I needed two flat discs for this project, so after I removed the one from the middle piece, I used it for the top piece.

 

That is the quickest part and still took parts of two days.

 

Then the time consuming, finger poking began.  Basically it involves sticking your thumb and forefinger inside the hole on the top while holding a threaded needle.  A very long and sharp needle.  I had to poke it through many times to find the exact spot to stitch.  It needed to look as much like the machine stitching on the rest of the basket as I could manage.  Then I poked it back through the project, a much easier thing, because now I could see what I was doing, right?

Well, the stitch placement was easier, but the reaching in to get the needle provoked many words followed by exclamation points.  We'll stick with ouch!, shall we?

 

The top piece was sewn on much quicker, but still took close to an hour. 

 

At some future date I may add some embellishments around this pot, but that will have to wait.  I have spent DAYS on these sewn pots and while I like them, I need to get back to making fabric baskets to sell. 

 

I already have a commission to make a couple for my cousin.  She wants them large enough to hold a ball of yarn and with a loop to pull the yarn through so it won't get tangled.  That seems like a fun and worthy project! 

I still need to finish my Etsy site and start posting baskets, but I just want to make one of the baskets for Saja and see how that goes.  I'll keep you posted.