This bag looks like a child’s drawing of a house – a tall rectangle with a triangular top.

It started out as a long, narrow strip of woven cloth. I wove this to test a thicker warp (vertical threads) and thinner weft (horizontal threads). When it worked, I put the strip away, not knowing what to do with it at the time.

I pulled it out again when I decided to use cloth I’d already woven to make bags for Angel Days (see previous post). But how do you go from a long, narrow strip to a bag about 6″ wide and 10″ tall? Without extreme sewing that is… 😮

Enter Noreen Crone-Findlay, a wonderful weaver who is aware that she can create anything she imagines! Noreen developed a mitered loop technique that was perfect for this project.

Basically, it works like this:

1. Weave a long, narrow strip of cloth. (You’ll have dimensions if you know what it will be in the end 🙂 )

2. Tie off the weaving to keep it together, and trim fringe close to knots.

3. Sew the ends of the strip together to form a loop.

4. Lay the loop on a flat surface, and fold it outward. It will be twice as wide and half as long as the original strip, with a point at each end. (This is not as hard as it sounds, really!)

5. Sew the center seam and the top and bottom seams, securing the pointed ends. Press with hot iron.

Noreen stops here, since she created a scarf with this technique. But I continued by folding the new shape – this pointed-end fabric – in half, and sewing the side seams.

The completed bag is twice the width and 1/4 the length of the original strip – remember, that “useless test strip”?

The Shapeshifter Bag, and a patterned shawl I didn’t get a picture of before someone joyfully claimed it, are my favorite projects so far.

Takeaways

No matter what shape your life is in, you can create a better shape starting now! Decide to transform the past into a beautiful and useful future through your conscious thoughts, prayers, emotions, reactions, and awareness and acknowledgement of your feelings.

You can do this, because your Spirit is the One who creates all things and continues to live eternally through each one!

Take a good look at these scarves.

What is your first impression?

What thought or feeling came up when you saw them?

Do you think they took a long time to weave?

Are they well crafted?

Do you admire anything about them?

Would you buy them?

Would you wear them?

Would you give them to someone as a gift?

Does knowing I wove them bring up any thoughts about me? What “must” I be like if I’ve woven these?

Now, what if I told you these scarves were woven on a potholder loom?

Many remember those little frame looms – a square with 18 or 20 pegs on each side – that you stretched cotton loops across. Then you wove more cotton loops over-under-over-under the first ones to make a square. And if you got tired, a parent or other long-suffering adult would finish the edges for you.

How many kitchens did these squares adorn as potholders, maybe stitched together into placemats or trivets for protecting the table from hot dishes?

Are these scarves made from potholder loom woven squares inferior to my
Transformation Scarves?

Maybe, if you think the others were woven on a “real” loom. Or if you have preconceptions of what small frame looms can – and can’t – weave.

But it’s all in your perception. And therein is the whole “secret” of life: How we think of, feel about, and experience things is all a matter of our perception.

And the best part is, we can change our perceptions at any time! Feel bad? Then change your perception to one that feels better. Feel good? Great, then it can only get better.

Your perception is your responsibility. You can’t blame anyone for anything – well, you can, but that’s still just how you believe it is. Doesn’t finding something better, feel better than being stuck in blame?

I speak from experience when I say it absolutely does! But don’t take my word for it… After all, my perceptions are my own, and not yours!