The giving of gifts

[illustrae.livejournal.com]

I love tiny things, and I love art to be functional. Therefore, it's not really a big surprise that when I saw the book "Omiyage: Handmade Gifts from Fabric in the Japanese Tradition" I was immediately inspired. I've been making clothing for several years, so I have a not-small collection of leftover fabric. However, I found that these designs are most well suited to a quilter's scrap box, so I went out and had a blast picking out fat quarters and remnants (which tend to be very inexpensive, so it's easy to get a bit carried away).

I liked a lot of the more purse-like designs, but I was truly impressed with these tiny flower-like pouches that aren't meant to hold more than a single favor or a few bits of candy. The instructions were fairly easy to understand, patterns for the petals and leaves and such are included with the book, and each design is completely hand-sewable (though I generally prefer to use a machine).



I've also included some close-ups of the individual purses, but I'm warning you, there are quite a few photos here.