Guitar bag!

[cheshcan.livejournal.com]

My girlfriend and I are huge screaming ridiculous fans of Bernard Butler, the guitarist. You know--from Suede, and McAlmont and Butler, and slashgirls, you know the part in Velvet Goldmine where Brian and Curt are doing a Bowie/Ronson during Baby's On Fire and the guitar is all werrr werrr werrr totally awesome? That's him, too. Anyway, so my girlfriend wants a tattoo and since she's a fangirl in general, she was coming up with all these band-related things. I suggested Bernard's red Gibson with his rainbow guitar strap, because they're pretty instantly recognizable (provided you're loser britpop nerds like us). And the guitar's never going to go get busted for kiddie porn or anything.

But it'll be awhile before she's got the cash for body modification, so in the meantime I decided to applique it on a bag for her.



It's a denim jordy with a messenger flap and velcro closure, big enough to hold a textbook and a few notebooks. But she likes her purses totally ginormous, so that's probably what she'll use it as instead!


The body of the guitar is this shiny red denim I picked up at Wal-Mart, I think, and the neck's black denim, partially embroidered and painted with silver Jacquard. The F-holes are also painted (stencilled, in fact), and those little knobs are studs. Bernard's actually has a fifth knob, but I couldn't fit it on without the whole thing suddenly looking silly. Everything else is satin.

I'm not sure why it doesn't have strings, because I distinctly remember sewing them on. I must have taken them off. (I made this thing months ago.)


Red cotton lining, one inner zipper pocket, and one outer zipper pocket. The pockets are lined with satin to minimize bulk. I could pretend I chose contrasting zippers for aesthetic purposes, but the truth is I just have this big box of zippers and I use whichever doesn't clash painfully. =D

WHAT I DID: First I had to determine if the guitar was an ES-335 or an ES-355 (the latter), and then I went to find a clear image of a similar one--it'd be too hard to work with some shot of his guitar at an angle with hands all over it. Then I resized and printed it, and used that as a guide for cutting the pieces so it'd be proportioned correctly. I used stitch-witchery to hold the pieces in place and sewed them down with a machine satin stitch. THEN I stencilled on the F-holes, added the studs, sewed the neck on, and put the whole thing on a piece of denim that became the flap of the bag. The guitar strap's a piece of ribbon that was actually my inspiration for the whole thing! And the strap of the bag I bought somewhere because I hate making them myself.

BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK, BERNARD?

"You're a DORK, Chesh!"

(A nerdy aside: I've never seen his rainbow strap on the red Gibson. I think the guitar he usually attaches it to is a black Gibson ES-330. But I'm allowed a little artistic license, dammit.)


I have SO much other crap to post, but I'm so lazy. The only reason I've stopped procrastinating enough to post this is so I can ask a question:
What do you kids know about beading clothing? I'm thinking I'll be a flapper for Halloween this year, but it's just not worth doing if I can't work in a bit of sparkle. I've never beaded fabric before, though, and I'm not sure what the best technique would be. Do you know of any websites with tutorials, or do you have any tips for me like "seal your knots with fabric clue!" or whatever? Thank you!