Pink Strap For My Lovely Green Bag

I received this lovely green zip bag in a drawing on Kathy Sperino’s blog,  Finishing Lines along with a book and book mark a few months ago.  I blogged about it on Nov. 2, 2011.  I couldn’t ask for a more beautiful bag but wanted to add a strap to it so I could carry it as a small purse over my shoulder.  I was thrilled and still am amazed to own such a beautiful bag.

I wanted a strap that would be in keeping with the loveliness of the bag and finally decided to use a bright pink rat tail cord and braid it into a strong strap.  The photo above doesn’t show it too well but the zipper in this green bag is bright pink.  The green was impossible to match so went with the pink.

The following website shows step by step instructions that are easy to understand for doing a round braid using four cords;  4 Strand Round Braid.  I purchased 12 yards of the pink rat tail cord – I know that seems like a lot.  I first got 6 yards and thought that would make a shoulder strap but decided it wouldn’t be enough to make as long a braid I wanted as the braiding takes up quite a bit of length as it is braided.  To make a long story shorter I got 6 more yards and cut each 6 yard piece in half so each cord was 3 yards long.  At the end of the braiding I cut 15” off that I didn’t use so didn’t come out with that much excess.  I tied an overhand knot at my starting point then wound up the long ends and secured them with rubber bands to keep the strands from getting tangled as I braided.

I rigged up the following to hold the knotted end so I could pull the braid tight as I was working on it.  The orange yarn is tied around my computer monitor and then the end of the yarn was tied to a black binder clip.   I clipped the knot in the binder clip and started braiding but the yarn wanted to flip and it was hard to keep it taught.  A can of lemon pie filling to the rescue…I just placed the can on the yarn and it was heavy enough to keep the yarn under control.  You never know what handy helpers you can find around the house.  Actually it didn’t take that long to braid the strap and tie it off with an overhand knot at the end.  The photos won’t go in the correct order but you can get the idea.

4 strand braiding VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I hand stitched the cord to the bag leaving tails of the rat tail cord hanging from the starting and ending knots.  I am not sure I will leave it that way but need to think about it and look at it some more before I decide to change it.  Not sure how to deal with the ends if I don’t have this fringe hanging.  Any ideas?  Also want to carry it around to make sure the strap is not too long as well as I can shorten it if I need to.

Finished Strap VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I can’t wait to carry this bag as it has the most beautiful quilting on it.  Will be fun to show it off.

Well, it is a little less than 2 weeks until we celebrate Christmas with our family.  We will be together for about 2 days and we can’t wait.  I am finished with my shopping but all the gifts are in bags in my family room so I must just sit down and start wrapping one of these days.  Have a ton of cleaning to do yet though.

I love having our daughters and their families come when we can all be together.  The kids have so much fun playing together as they don’t see each other too often.  John and I have just as much fun as they do I think.  I want to get some cooking done ahead of time so I don’t have to spend all my time in the kitchen.  For our Christmas dinner together we have a tradition that started a few years ago and everyone expects now.  We grill steak from our freezer plus purchase the nice big breaded shrimp that we deep fry, this to go along with all the rest of the side dishes and of course a yummy dessert.  I can almost taste it….mmmm good. 

I have not had too many things to blog about lately…sorry.  I am doing things like cleaning house and like I said earlier I have a lot more to do before company comes.  Cleaning my floors are more of a pleasure now as I recently got a new vacuum that actually picks up the dirt on the floor.  The old one worked but just isn't as good at sucking up the dirt as my new one.  Maybe I will blog about that so won’t say more about it now.

Enjoy the season and keep joy in your life!
Lynn