When I first started working with the strike offs from Loved to Pieces, I saved each of my selvedges and put them in a special place. This was my first ever fabric collection, so for sentimental value alone I had to keep them even if I never made anything with them. So when Amanda Anderson of Mandy Any Designs offered to make me a woven selvedge tote bag for my Spring Market Booth, it was definitely one of those serendipitous moments where the quilty stars aligned. I knew it would be cool because I had seen her selvedge weaving an always thought it was super cool. But what emerged quite literally blew my mind with its awesomeness and has become my go-to bag when I travel or teach.
I asked Amanda to share a little bit about herself and the story of this bag and here she is:
I started calling this the kitchen sink bag while working on it because I basically added every technique I could think of. Selvage weaving is kind of my thing and I offered to make something with Loved to Pieces.
I left the raw edge of the selvages exposed to showcase the fabrics and added some extra regular fabric strips. The selvage weaving panels were then heavily quilted for durability and texture.
For the inside, I made a zipper panel that included some HSTs and EPP with machine appliqué and quilted the flower panels.
The lining is sewn into the bottom so no saggy lining! This is what makes it reversible. I also hand quilted the binding around the top edge. I made up my own pattern as I went along since I like to do a little bit of everything.
And then I had just a little itty bit of fabric left and I made this triaxial fabric weaving wallet. This wallet and some selvage weaving items are available in my store https://www.etsy.com/shop/mandyandydesigns.
In my booth at market, this tote had a primo spot for all to see and anytime I carry it I always get stopped at least a couple times by someone who wants to look at it more closely.
Amanda, you are quite a special and talented maker and I am forever grateful that you took the time to create a keepsake masterpiece with the selvedges from my Loved to Pieces Collection.
[mailchimp_subscriber_popup baseUrl=’mc.us13.list-manage.com’ uuid=’7cb8f88750148536623242803′ lid=’b4d592cf7e’ usePlainJson=’true’ isDebug=’false’]
While I don’t promote anything unless I legit love it, this post contains affiliate links.
I really LOVE the weaving and I just recently started saving selvages after seeing a comment from Kim Niedzwiecki about them (I never thought to use them!!!) ~ so my next step is pretty obvious 🙂 Thanks for being such a bright light and inspiration!!
I was just looking for a selvage project – this may be it! Is there a tutorial or pattern for the weaving?
I have video tutorials on my YouTube channel