This morning my task was to create something that wasn’t a card. I had a vague idea of using a small gift bag but nothing more than that. So I must be honest and admit that I’ve no idea how I ended up with this casual suit bag. All I can say is sometimes my best ideas come when I don’t try to think too hard.

FABRIC CHOICES

After I pulled out the small gift bag I had the idea to cover the whole of the front rather than just add a panel. The Suit & Tie Dies were the perfect scale for what I had in mind. Initially I thought I might use the coordinating Handsomely Suited Stamp Set but that never happened. In the end everything came down to my choice of Designer Series Paper, In Good Taste.

From the pack I chose three different textile type patterns. For the jacket I went with a grey tweed design. For the shirt I selected a cream coloured woven pattern. Then to add a pop of colour I found a scrap of a pink knitted pattern left over from a previous project.

SUIT & TIE DIES

For the jacket I needed four pieces. First I used my Paper Trimmer to cut a piece to cover the whole front of the gift bag. Then using the plain V shaped die I created the basic jacket shape. From the excess V piece I was able to cut the pocket and also a tiny stitched rectangle using more dies from the set. Finally from another piece of the same paper I cut out the jacket collar piece.

Next I cut a simple square of the cream design. This would be fixed behind the jacket.

Going back to the dies I cut the tie and a separate small knot from the pink paper. Then I remembered I’d need a collar for my shirt so I die cut that piece from Thick Very Vanilla Card.

As I was planning the layout of the pieces I realised that some of the parts were hard to define. So I used Sponge Daubers to add ink around the edges. On the jacket collar, pocket and small rectangle I accentuated the edges with Basic Gray ink. Then on the tie and knot I used Rococo Rose.

With that done it was a simple process to layer all the pieces using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow). Just to keep things interesting I decided not to glue down the bottom of the shirt collar, or the inner V of the jacket.

And the tiny stitched rectangle? Look closely and you’ll see it adds dimension to the top of the pocket. Clever huh?

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Suit & Tie Dies in a bundle with the coordinating Handsomely Suited Stamp Set (not used today). Using the single bundle item number meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included a link to the bundle in case you want to explore that option.

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