Surface Design Inspiration from Shirley Adams

Shirley Adams is unfortunately retiring, but I managed to catch one of her last workshops.  She had so many  wonderful examples to show us!  These 3 photos are purse flaps.  The top picture is a print fabric with fringed squares on top to look like flowers.  She used 2 squares for each flower.  The middle picture is squares folded up twice and sewn through the middle with 2 bartacks.

This last picture shows two spirals made by a long bias strip sewn through the middle.  A fancy button goes right in the middle.  I love these techniques and hope to use them in the future!

Chameleon Bag with Flaps

So here is my Chameleon Bag by Shirley Adams, finished. Fully lined, inside zipper pocket and back, outside pocket. The flap is removable and the purse closes with a magnetic snap. I made it out of upholstery samples of polyester suede. It already had the stitching on it. The coconut shark pin was my great aunt's. The purse was fun to make and I've already started another flap- green needle weaving!

Here are flaps made by Shirley Adams, showing how different the can look. Techniques used include applique, bobbin work, embroidery, needle weaving, and wool felting. A great way to get lots of looks from one basic purse! (The flaps below actually go with a black purse and a denim purse, but you get the idea!)

Pattern Manipulation and Surface Design by Shirley Adams

The past two days I was at a sewing lecture and workshop given by Shirley Adams. She is so full of ideas! Lots of pattern manipulation and surface design was shown. The second day was a purse workshop. She designed the Chameleon Handbag that features a removable flap, so you can have several to change the look of the basic purse. I still need to finish mine, but I'll post it soon.

This is a coat she made and then used machine free motion stitching to create stems/branches. The leaves are fused on, with raw edges.
More on the workshop later.