I discovered this bag in my mom’s cupboard a few weeks ago. I was immediately drawn to the beautiful colours and the pattern. It was a gift from one of my aunts many years ago. It is a market bag from Kashmir with hand embroidered patterns in bright woollen yarn. I sent photos to an embroidery artisan in Kashmir to understand the work. She believes the quality of the embroidery is inferior as it is made in bulk. Cheap non-woven fabric is used as lining and on the edges. The round handles made of cane were interesting to me. I took it up as a rather ambitious project to remake it into a tote bag I could actually use.
Used as a market bag in Kashmir The details are not well finished The non-woven material as lining
I decided to take it all apart first and carefully removed the stitches and lay the pieces. I used some of it in this and the left over bits for another ambitious project later. I did some sketches to see what’s the best way to go about it. The rope idea seemed the most do-able.
We can see the quality in this, the trace marks are visible. It was oddly fun to undo the the stitches Some sketches
We have an old timey Singer sewing machine belongs to my dadi, at least 35 years old I think? It is beautifully ornate and full of character. The tube had worn out and because of the lockdown I couldn’t get it fixed so I started sewing the bag by hand. Used a nice violet colour as lining that I already had. Once the machine was ready I continued on it. I took a few many weeks on it.. working on it at my own pace.
hand sewing the bag. Look at the detail at the back of the embroidery work. Sewing on my Grandmother’s Singer sewing machine
And finally, I bought some rope at a local hardware store and tried different knots and settles on a kind-of ply split braiding method, splitting the rope and inserting the opposite end.
Splitting the ply and inserting the opposite end Close-up of the closure
And finally, here it is. I quite like how it turned out. Let me know what you think
Here I am with the bag and dress made from fabric I designed!