Up-cycling a Vintage Suitcase

Found this sturdy little suitcase in need of some work.  The plan is for it to become a sort of "go bag" for supplies. This should be able to accommodate everything I could need when sewing away from home.

It did not start out looking like this. First it really needed a serious cleaning.  The outer shell was covered in these black marks that cleaners would not remove....BUT did you know that hairspray is a secret weapon for these sorts of marks?...it cleaned up great! (as you can see in that first photo)

Next I had to tackle the interior.......it was rough....real rough.

I tore it all out and tossed it away.

now, I needed to rebuild the interior. Wanting create some structure, I used buckram (I had a roll of it left over from my costume building days)

Next, I created  fabric covers for the bits I had fashioned

Covered buckram was also used to create the "hinge"

Wanting to make sure that the top's interior would not pull away, I placed the elastic that runs through that shirred pocket all the way around. I added an extra piece of elastic to help hold things in place and created some loops of sorts that I may want to clip small items to.

This is how the back of this piece looked, wrapped around a piece of foam core and made so that it fits very, very tightly in its spot to help keep it secure

everything was firmly adhered using doubled sided carpet tape.

I am quite pleased with how it turned out.  All that remains to be done is to gather up the variety of supplies I want to live in this case.....ready to go at a moments notice.

Amaziograph.......amazing!

I have been intrigued by some short videos floating about in cyberspace showing a very interesting app that allows one to draw wonderful symmetries. I found it in the app store (currently only available for ios devices)  It is called "Amaziograph"  While it likely would not be considered a serious drawing program, it sure is a FUN way to play with design ideas......maybe just a wee bit TOO much fun.

I downloaded it late last week and I must say, I found it to be pretty user friendly.....here is a look at a few of my drawings, keeping in mind, with this app, I need only draw one portion of the design, the app repeats each stroke for me as I go along.  Guess I can put away my mirrors that I have used for so long to create symmetrical design.

these are just examples where I am creating Kaleidoscopic type images, this app allows you to do so much more.

I found lots of videos showing the app in use... but not much in the way of a basic tutorial showing what to expect....the tools, options, how to make copies, save, export and all that sort of thing.....so...I made one.  I have only touched on the basics to get one started, there is much more to explore....and yes...for those who love to play with colour, you can pull up a pallet, mix colours, add colour with varying degrees of opacity, and well....if you have an iPad and like to experiment with design....you just may want to give this a look. But don't say I did not warn you....it is addictive!

here is a link to the video tutorial I made....it is not slick, but it will certainly help get you started if you are unfamiliar with this sort of program