made by hand | Ariane Zurcher

The Perfect Zippered & Lined Bag

by Ariane Zurcher | Jan 30, 2020 | creative process, Design, inspiration | 1 comment

I love a good zippered pouch. Preferably one that I can take on an airplane, large enough for a tablet or small sketch book, a needle roll, small pair of scissors, and project, but not so large that it becomes cumbersome. I began looking around at what is already out there and found many lovely bags, but finally decided to design my own. It measures 12″ x 12″, has a slightly curved top with a tassel for the zipper pull.

Ariane Zurcher Designs© Zippered, Lined Pouch

Years ago my husband and I came upon this beautiful African Rhino and decided we had to have him. This became my inspiration for the design on the front of my bag.

As many of you know, I re-found hand stitching through Sue Spargo. I fell in love with the way she used traditional embroidery stitches, but used all kinds of different threads, to add another dimension to wool appliqué. I responded to the “folk art” style of her designs, but also to the layering she employs in her work. Using wool as her base, she then might layer another piece of wool, which is then layered with a smaller piece of silk velvet, cotton print, linen, cork, ribbon, beading, whatever best accents her design – the options are endless! That was five years ago…

Today, I’m honored to call Sue my friend. She gives me endless encouragement, suggestions, helpful tips, and is one of the kindest, most generous souls I’ve ever met. She also happens to be one of the hardest working women I know, is a smart business woman and runs a thriving brick and mortar store as well as online business at suespargo.com, all while teaching year round all over the country and world. If you haven’t taken a class with Sue, you are in for a treat. Sue is patient, helpful, encourages everyone to put their own personal touches onto their pieces, is incredibly talented, oozes creativity and did I mention how kind she is? Kind. Just incredibly kind.

So when I decided to design my own zippered pouch I immediately sent it off to Sue to get her okay. After all I’m using her techniques, her wools, her threads and never want to take credit for any of that. She, of course, being Sue, told me she loved it and so here it is, ready for others to make if they choose.

If you want to make this pouch yourself, you can purchase the pattern, templates and detailed instructions, including tons of step by step photographs to help you, as well as a list of materials you will need from my Etsy Site. I even added instructions for us lefties out there, so that our zipper will be on the opposite side! All the wool, fabric, and threads you need to make this pouch are on Sue Spargo’s website except maybe the zipper. It’s a one-stop shopping experience. And who doesn’t want a zippered, fully lined pouch!? Also – if you don’t want to make the wool Rhino top, you can use the pattern templates to make the whole thing out of cotton fabric or bark cloth or canvas or linen or whatever you like!

When I was designing my pouch, I first made it using all cotton fabrics and added Soft and Stable to the whole thing to give it more oomph. I swear that’s the technical word…

I also re-designed the curve so it was gentler, with the added plus being it is easier to sew in the zipper, and I added fabric tabs to the ends of the zipper, which gives it a nice, clean finish.

Tell me what you think. Post your finished bag on Instagram and tag me and/or on Facebook. Don’t forget to tag me so I can applaud your efforts.

Here’s to stitching together!

The Undermining of “Craft”

by Ariane Zurcher | Sep 16, 2019 | Art, crafts, Life | 2 comments

“Crafts” have occupied a large part of my life. I was fifteen years old when I knitted my first sweater. My mother taught me to knit when I was so young my fingers had trouble wrapping the yarn around them. I didn’t realize it then, but being left-handed certainly must have made it more difficult for me to learn, yet learn I did, and to this day I knit as a right handed person does. It was the beginning of a love affair. When I was in my twenties I had a brief moment when I was the editor of the “How To Knit” page in Elle Magazine.

Ariane Zurcher Designs Capelet and Sleeves

My mother also taught me to do embroidery and sewing, this was in the days when knitting and fabric shops were as abundant as Starbucks. It was a special occasion when my mother would drive me to San Francisco so we could visit Britex, which carried the most luxurious silks and fabrics from all over the world. When I moved to New York City there was a little knitting shop on Sixth Avenue in the village that had hand dyed and spun specialty yarns. They were out of my price range as I was a student on a budget, but I would wander into that shop and just smell the wool and gaze at the beautiful colors, coveting the skeins that hung like candy along the walls.

Emroidered Creche my mother & I made when I was a teenager.

My father, born and raised in Paris, used to do Petit Point, at least this is what he called it, though in fact I believe he was doing what in America we call needlepoint. It was my father who taught me how to do basket weave needle point so the back of the tapestry resembled a basket weave, and was not as prone to warping the fabric and lay flatter or so he insisted. He looked down upon those who did their needlepoint by going back and forth horizontally. I have a pillow he made for me with the letter A prominently displayed in the center, it’s tattered back and edges giving clues to how old it now is.

When I came to New York City it was because I’d been accepted to Parsons School of Design. My love of fabrics, sewing, knitting and all things crafts-related propelled me into the world of fashion design. It was an uneasy alliance and ultimately one I could not reconcile. I learned early on that anything “Crafts” related was the sullied, unkept cousin to “high fashion.” Crafts were what housewives did, it wasn’t the sort of thing an “artist” indulged in. So the thing I loved most, creating things by hand, became the thing I felt ashamed of. The world of fashion and the designers whose work hung on exquisitely tall and impossibly thin models, exemplified all that I wasn’t. My love of crafts became something I began to hide and even reject. It was “woman’s work” and if I was ever to make a career for myself, it was best to put those “childish pursuits” behind me.

“Craft” has begun to get its well deserved recognition and I couldn’t be happier. It is no coincidence that female artists in general are generating more interest in museums and galleries. Women’s work finally elevated to more prominence in a male dominated world is as it should be. “Craft” and all that it encompasses is yet another way we have been taught to undermine, under value and even ridicule work done by, mostly, women. We have a lot further to go, but it is wonderful to see that beginning to change!