First off apologies for the absence, we had ourselves a little holiday down in the Devon and Cornwall counties... two whole weeks off, absolutely lovely. So back to it, I thought I would post a non illustration related post, things have gotten a bit illustration based around here what with setting up the company and website, so here is a little DIY I recently made. Righty ho I believe I may have mentioned King Kwak draws once or twice? He carries a sketchbook and pens around with him all the time, to sketch when the mood take him, all of which rattling around in his bag. He often draws upon the tube to work and home, so for one recent special occasion I decided to make him this little wrap to carry all of his supplies in one easy place. About a year ago my dad had given me a load of old rice sacks, and my husband he is rice's number one fan, so it was a no brainer that I used one of these sacks. I did not photograph the process I am afraid as it was a bit spontaneous one nap time. You can see from the photos how simple it is, but effectively it has been made from one piece of sacking and felt sewn together then wrapped. The length of which equals two times the width of the sketchbook, by just over the length of the sketchbook.
Front:
Sacking outer with leather fastening, I like that the use by date is still upon it. Please excuse the dodgy stitching.
Reverse:
The sacking was cut according to the print upon it, I wanted the rice text to be the focus upon the back.
Fastening:
I made this little fastening from leather, hole punched and sewn on with a nice little punched name detail. I acquired a great little set of steel alphabet and number punches from my dad, similar to which are available on eBay. It is best to do this part outside, as I unfortunately discovered it goes through the leather and my wooden floor now has Kwak imprinted upon it. Oops.
Inside:
A pocket for the sketchbook to the left and to the right I sewed in two little pockets with embroidery thread. One smaller pocket of felt to hold little bits like rubbers, pencil leads, tape... etc. And below a more heavy weight pocket from the sacking, I chose a piece from a nicer part of the graphic and sewed (very basic) lines to hold the individual pens and pencils.
Bits and Bobs:
As you can see the wrap has been aligned to safely hold the sketchbook to the left, the little pockets are able to hold all the supplies King Kwak may need.
Sketchy Kwak:
And should he fancy drawing a heart any time, then now he can do it. No more rummaging around looking for pens. Ok I admit I drew the heart.
Anytime, Anywhere:
And there you have it, he carries it around in his bag all the time and can whip out his sketchbook whenever he fancies drawings something. Job done and an actual miracle I made something for him which he actually uses... Hoorah. On a side note, I spent really rather far too long stamping out bird poo from this photo of the park bench, lovely.
Cost: Nothing.
Supplies: Sacking, felt, leather, embroidery thread, embroidery needle, scissors, leather hole punch, scalpel and alphabet punch with hammer.
Time taken: Two hours: One baby nap time.
I do hope that basic description and the photos make sense? Should anyone want a real tutorial, then please send me an email and I shall whip up something for you. I hope you like it, so for any sketchers out there, would you carry this around? And should you see my husband using this on the tube then do say hello.
