Etsy | Spool Teacher

The idea of developing a product is to come up with something that can be sold…at a profit.

For the most part, she enjoys the whole process; but two days and probably sixteen hours into it, she wonders why she puts herself through this grueling process. 16 hours times $10 an hour (her minimum mentally acceptable labor rate) is $160. Debra Dorgan wouldn’t hesitate to ask this much, but Ms. SpoolTeacher is not of that caliber, at least not yet. As a matter of fact, it was viewing Debra’s lovely things on Etsy that had gotten Ms. SpoolTeacher’s muse all jazzed up to sew. That and the weather. And that most of her winter seeds had been sown. Oh sure, there were lots of projects available to do on the First Do No Harm Front Yard Farmacy agenda, but it was time to start thinking about earning more income.

During the summer monsoons, all of the sample books on the top shelf under her patio cover had gotten wet from leaks that occur along the joint where the cover meets the house. She had pulled them all apart and was washing and drying them to use for projects such as this one that got in her mind to do.

This day, two days ago, she was sorting samples that had finished drying suddenly two samples got her muse activated so she started work immediately.

The front and back of the bag would be two colors of the same print and the sides would be a stripe piece cut in half.

She decided to make a pleat at the bottom edge to add interest and keep it from being a boring rectangle.

Her design plan was to utilize as much of the sample piece as possible.

To make the pleat, she measured two inches up and one inch in and stitched the line. Then the pleat is pressed so that the middle meets the seam.

The next design decision was which side would go with the red and which with the blue. These things are more important than you would think.

Yellow, red, yellow, blue. That way the sides separate from the main body, visually.

She had sewn them together so that the bottom edges were all even so she measured all across the four pieces to make them even at the top as well, then seamed the final two edges together to form a rectangle.

The next decision was what to use for the bottom.

She laid the “rectangle” on a stack of clean samples and started flipping through them until one “felt” right.

The lining was made using all of the same measurements she’d just done making the shell.

She intentionally made all of the seams on the right side of the fabric because she wanted to use a ragged edge as a feature. As it turned out, she realized she’d rather have stitched the lining to the shell pieces before seaming them together as then the lining would have also shown in the ragged edge. This is product development. Next one, she will use that technique to improve the results. The lining was all cut from one big piece of satin she’d ordered a yard and a half of for her store years ago. Orange with dots woven into it.

In the process of building the lining, pockets were added and as it turned out, they seemed too close to the edge so a decision was made to add a top piece that would increase the height as well as cover the raw edges.

This piece was cut into three sections and seamed together. Again, you learn through the process. When she went to make the handles, she realized that a bias joint would have been better. It shows less.

It’s very hard to explain the labor steps involved in constructing anything that is sewn. There seem to be a million little steps that are taken that are invisible to the final product.

Ms. SpoolTeacher was thinking through the whole process, “Maybe it would be better to hold a ‘build-a-bag class’ rather than try to sell them already made.” But, that has a whole ‘nother set of problems.

She’ll just make a few more and see where it goes. The first one is always the hardest. A lot of the “bugs” get ironed out in the process.

For instance, this little side pocket that seems rather lacking in function now that the whole thing is made; but even so, it adds interest. Maybe a place for a little list for the store, something that wouldn’t be devastating if it were lost.

She was real happy with how the ragged edge turned out. To make a secure seam, she used her stretch stitch so that even after clipping close to the seam, there were still plenty of stitches securing it. It sure would have been pretty with the orange showing. Product development deployment can sometimes have disappointments. A lot to be happy with though, as well.

Now she thinks she will add some decorative buttons to secure the straps to the top band. After adding elastic to crinkle it up, the top folds in some getting in and out of it.

Sixteen hours and counting…

When the muse gets a hold of her, it can sometimes turn into madness.

A Magnificent Obsession kind of madness.

Muse: Madness
Deploy: bring into effective action; utilize.
“they are not always able to deploy this skill”

Ms. SpoolTeacher has never worked on a potter’s wheel; but throughout the process of crocheting her Tarn Bowl, she got a sensation that it was a similar experience.

She started out making what was to be a round rug, but after she got to increasing every 8 stitches, she changed her mind. She has never crocheted with tarn (t-shirt yarn) before and is quite certain that she should have been using a larger needle and one that had more traction, (wasn’t metal). Crocheting is something that only through practice does one pick up on the subtleties that can be manipulated to create variables that are either desirable or not , intended or not, and/or an expression of creative license, i.e., art.

She was quite having fun. She was utilizing her acumen and a very good video to remember even this beginning stage of crocheted creations.

She had previously made some t-shirt yarn, tarn as it is called; and as it turned out, the denier was variable as she had differing weights of t-shirt material and she had cut some a little different width than others.

This is all new to her.

The ball of t-shirt yarn she started with, a muted green/aqua, was cut after the rolls in the above picture. It had seams but she decided to go ahead and try it.

She’s on a learning curve with this and wants to be able to tell others why to or not to use seamed pieces, etc. She kind of likes imperfections anyway. Wabi-sabi! Serene Melancholy. Spiritual Longing. Doesn’t that evoke the language of Art?

^[1] “If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi.”^[2] “[Wabi-sabi] nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.”^[3]

Wabi-sabi tea bowl, 16th Century. Image courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

So as she was sitting on her bed, late at night, watching some thought-provoking recording she’d made (in the days of having TV) of something from Free Speech TV, she decided to quit increasing and make a bowl instead of a rug.

The aqua only lasted long enough to apply about 3 rows, give or take, up the sides before she had to determine which roll of tarn to use next. She chose the gray.

Wabi-sabi tarn bowl, 21st century, thrown on an “artists” lap

Well, as she got going, she realized that it was quite fatter denier and was making it bulge slightly. She thought about taking it out, but no, she kind of liked that idea and she rolled her fingers around the circumference as she would if she was throwing a clay bowl, seeing if she could pull it up and/or stretch it into aligning with the aqua. She used various tensions with the tarn/yarn in her fingers as she continued on making stitches up the side to see if she could control the bulge. More “imperfections”. All the while, she was thinking it was looking like a bowl some artist had created intentionally that way on her potter’s wheel.

Well, the gray yarn ran out in no time and then what color next? She opted for the white. It had printing on it, so there would be that as a subtle “imperfection” as well. She wasn’t quite sure how tall to make it; but after two rolls of white, both slightly different denier, she decided that it was tall enough.

Now for how to finish it off and maybe add handles? (Ms. ST just spent an hour trying to find a tutorial for adding handles to her bowl but all she got was Etsy and Pinterest links without help) After scouring all the images, she thinks she can figure it out on her own.

Image courtesy http://crochetincolor.blogspot.com/2012/03/ombre-basket-pattern.html

Oops! Never give up. She thinks she found a tutorial!

But as you can see, it looks rather simple to do.

More rows could be added to make a fatter handle.

She also saw many, many beautiful examples and some interesting ways to finish it off.

She usually likes things rather simple. Why complicate things? Right?

Isn’t this a pretty one? Not made out of t-shirt yarn, but very pretty.

So here are a few more images of her Wabi-sabi tarn bowl, 21st Century …

It ain’t particularly purdy, but it’s Wabi-sabi to her.

Serenely melancholy is one of her favorite colors! And now she realizes that she photographed it wrong side out. Wabi-sabi her. Tarn it!

Update! Update!!!

Ms. SpoolTeacher turned the bowl right side out and added handles in purple and white. Everything looks better with a touch of purple. Here is the near complete bowl, (just have to tuck in some tails)… and a preview of the next project, a braided rug.