:: Textile ::

Here comes our 2nd assignment!! A weaved bag! =) Dr Mok mentioned that there will be minimal sewing for this bag....never did we expect, what followed was not easy too!!

We were given 4 pieces of cloth, 2 coloured and 2 printed ones. All the colour combination was painstakingly matched by Dr Mok, Miss Chin and Miss Soo. There was red, green, blue and yellow (cant remember if named all!) There was 1 popular colour that ended having to vote as there was higher demand than supply. Luckily for me, there were just 5 people asking for yellow hence there was no need to vote. Chose yellow as it looks bright and cheery =)

We had to cut out the fabrics into 1 inch thick pieces. Many of us were so afraid of cutting wrong measurement as Dr Mok stressed that she did not have extra. Guess everyone of us were so worried and did a good job with cutting (; Shown below is the picture with all the strips! We had to iron some white layer thing inside the cloth to give it some shape.

Starting off with planning the design

The weaving process is kind of complicated so i will not explain here lest i confuse my dear readers =) Looking beyond the starting materials, we have a picture of the initial weaving! In the picture, i had only 2 layers of weaves. And do you know, we actually just used those white glue used for handicraft to stick the strips together! To our surprise, the glue was able to hold the strips together !



2 layers of weaving

Finally after so much time spent on weaving, we can finally see the product.


Finished the weaving!

Ta daa! My finished bag! With yellow handle strips and it also come with a yellow cloth as inner lining.

Final product =)

While doing the weaving, some thoughts went through my mind. We know that Thailand sells alot of weaved bags right? I suppose many of it were hand-woven and the price maybe slightly more expensive (of course it is still cheaper compared to singapore!) but as humans (ahem* singaporean?), we still want to slash the price despite we can afford it. After going through the process of making this bag, I really understand their hardwork and time spent on working on the bags. I can tell you, it is definitely not as easy as we thought! You have to go through the whole process to feel the strain and pain. Guess if i were to go to Thailand and purchase weave bag, I should refrain from slashing prices! Afterall, they just want to make a living with the skills they possess =)