Just Simple Bags

I’ve always had a passion for the arts, for color, texture, and design.  After teaching literacy for 35 years, I discovered the wealth of beauty in the world of fabrics.  I began collecting– Japanese fabrics, Australian Aborigine designs, fabrics with scripts in various languages (of course), Asian and African fabrics, batiks, metallic fabrics, black and white designs.  And yes, it evolved. I collect fabric designs with faces, with animals, with leaves.  It’s a wonderful, creative process.

I took a quilting workshop at the Portsmouth Fabric Co. here in New Hampshire and created personalized quilts for family and friends.  An afternoon workshop sewing a handbag convinced me that was to be my next pursuit.  I made and gifted over 50 handbags, and everyone seemed to love something about them.  I’ve played with designs and try to keep them ‘simple.’

I began working with wool when I convinced my husband one of his Pendleton shirts, spattered with paint on the sleeves, needed to be repurposed.  I’ve left his closet alone and search local thrift shops and GoodWill stores for fine wools in men’s suit jackets and women’s jackets and skirts: beautiful Irish and Scottish tweeds and herringbone and camelhair and cashmere.  I have hundreds of yards of luscious wools from which I create handbags, totes and baglettes, often pairing two or three different patterns.  Jacket breast pockets are handy for cellphones.  Each bag is designed with respect to the fabrics being used and the quantity of material available, so no two bags are alike, and usually there is fabric enough for only one.  So enjoy shopping, and thank you for stopping by.

Terry Moher – Just Simple Bags