New Designs and Back to Paintings

Our two newest designs are small, compact, sleek, and cost less than dinner in a medium-priced restaurant.  Both will be posted to our catalog in the next week or so, but for now you can order either one at weRpiecework@gmail.com.  The first is a tri-fold that closes with a Velcro patch or an elastic band if you prefer.  It has a credit card case on the front that can be accessed without even opening the wallet. On the inside, shown below, are a flat pocket for a few coins or extra cards, receipts, tickets, etc., and a billfold.  A customer asked us to make this wallet for her out of her favorite coffee bag.  It's very similar to a leather wallet that sells on-line for $99.  Our price is $23 including shipping.

 This little wallet is my favorite these days.  Another customer asked us to design a minimal wallet for her, dispensing with coin purses and even credit card slots.  It's compact and flat enough to sit on comfortably but also works well if carried in a bag and used with an elastic band to keep it closed.  Inside you can see the pocket for very small cards and the two pockets for credit cards.  The billfold goes across the back and opens from the top.  It's also a great travel wallet, small enough to conceal in an inside pocket. 

Check our blog in the next week if you want to order by Paypal.  Meanwhile, you can email to order it now.

NEW Loosie Goosie Big Bags

We're excited about our newest bags:  our Loosie Goosies!  We've been testing these out by hauling all of our stuff in them, including what felt like fifty pounds of books and art supplies to and from Barcelona last month.  We've also been lugging beach towels and picnic gear and groceries and plants from the herb festival and kids' clothes for overnights.  And these bags do great!  We make them out of that incredibly strong woven plastic, and if they're lined, they're probably strong enough to haul concrete blocks should you want to haul that.  In fact, on my recent trip to Barcelona, I saw dumpster-like construction debris containers made of this same woven plastic!

The bags are stripped down and simple with velcro closings across the tops and straps that are long enough to slip over your shoulder.  Because of the simple construction, we're selling them for only $25 if unlined and $35 if lined, and they're light enough to ship for around $4.  We can make them to your specifications regarding color, materials, theme (chicken, dogs, cats, birds, etc) and size.

These aren't in our catalog yet,  but they will be by Tuesday.  But if you want to rush order one today, just email me at this address  and I'll get started on it.  Then you can place the order Tuesday and we'll have it to you within the week.

New Compact Bigger Bag

I LOVE this compact square bag!  I've been wanting a bag for myself that was a little bit wider than the Not-So-Small that I had been carrying but not quite as big as the iPad size one I had used last summer while traveling.  I stacked up the things I wanted to carry in the bag:  my calendar, my sketchbook, my wallet, my sunglasses, a few pens, my phone, and my bulky keys.  I made three layers, one for each compartment of the bag.  I decided that 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches would be perfect.

The finished bag is about the size of a large sandwich.  I can slide the sketchbook in to the big center compartment and still have room for my (Baby Shara) wallet in there along with two pens clipped to the sketchbook.  (I can actually jam a paperback book in there, too, or in the open back pocket if it's a small book.) My calendar fits perfectly in the back open compartment along with my keys and sunglasses (in a soft case).  I love the built-in phone case under the flap because I can fit my whole hand in there to grab the phone, and there's still room in there for receipts, tickets, small maps, etc.

I especially love the Nicholas Wilton painting of the sheep from a Lotus dog food bag.  Below is a working drawing that I made when designing the bag.  The drawing on the right shows the under-the-flap wide phone pocket.

I used this bag last night and someone asked me to make one for her exactly like it.  You can have one too for $35.  Order it on the Bigger Bags catalog page.  Select the 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 2 1/2 " bag, and give any special instructions in the text block on the Paypal button.  We still have a few of those sheep, but act fast if you want one.

Whatever Happened to PieceWorks?

PieceWorks is alive and well even though its poor neglected blog has been untended for the past eight months.  We've been extremely busy with custom orders, but we want to assure you that we still sell our regular wallets & bags on-line (as well as in outlets in Asheville and a few other cities around the country).

Because we're making so many large bags and cases these days, we've added a new category to our catalog-- Bigger Bags and Cases.  We have now added this as a new catalog page, which you'll find on our catalog list.  There you'll find
 iPad -sized bags as well as market bags and small lunch bags available for purchase on line.

 The bag shown here is an iPad -size bag.  It makes a great everyday bag for those of you who like a slightly larger bag than our Not-So-Small (the iPad bag is 9" x 11" x 1 1/2").  This bag also works great as a travel bag.  I used mine on planes as a carry-on and on trains and buses in Portugal and France this past May.  It worked so well and stood up to being over-stuffed, dragged across floors to stash it under a seat, carried in the rain, and every possible abuse I could devise for it.  I'm still using the same bag today.  It sells for $38, which includes postage and handling.

Of course this catalog page is also the place to custom-order your own bigger bag or case.  Just give us instructions on the Paypal page OR, better, email us at weRpiecework@gmail.com to give us exact instructions and get a price, which you can pay via Paypal money transfer or by check.

Like Text? You'll Love this Bag!

A customer asked us to make a bag for her to take the place of her old bag that she had carried for many years.  She wanted the bag to be black and white, with perhaps a small bit of blue or red, but mainly black and white.  She needed it to be an inch or so wider and taller than our usual cross-body bags because she carries a journal with her and wanted to be able to slide it in and out of a pocket.  She also wanted us to use the clasp and a mesh pocket from her old bag.

We really love the way this bag came out.  It's made of the text areas of bird seed bags (plus one bar code), and its slightly longer front flap covers the mesh bag.  There is also a pocket on the outside of the flap.  The bag has the usual three inside pockets.  The customer didn't need a separate phone pocket, but we could have added a phone pocket to the back.

We've made so many of these not-so-small bags that we're finally going to put them in our catalog.  We'll standardize the bags into three or four general sizes, but we will continue to custom-design them for anyone who wants different sizes and features.  If you want to give us special instructions, you can email us or send us a phone number and we'll call you.

The basic bags are 8.5" tall x 6.5" wide x approximately 2" deep and sell for $25, including shipping and handling.  See the catalog page (Bigger Bags) for details and prices for the other larger bags.

The Upper Limit of our Treadle Machine

Today we finished the largest bag we've ever made--  a 14" x 19" x 3" laptop case, fully padded, with extra compartments for papers and cables and phones and pens.  Our customer wanted oranges and reds and a bird theme, which, as you can see,  was a great choice of materials.  The bag was a challenge, mainly because our little sewing machine is not an industrial model and has limited space for material to pass underneath the machine head.  It was sort of like sewing a pup tent.  But we really like designing on this scale, and we think a bag this size would be fun for many purposes-- carry-on, messenger bag, briefcase-like bag, as well as laptop and notebook bag.

What Ever Happened to those New Bigger Bags?

A few months ago we posted about a new bigger bag that we were experimenting with that we now call our Not-So-Small bag.  At that time we expected to test them for a month or two and then put them on this blog so you could have one of your own.  Our five testers gave us very helpful feedback after using theirs for a month, and suddenly we found ourselves making lots of these bags before we ever had a chance to put them into our catalog.  Most of our orders since then have come from people who see us or our customers wearing these bags and who then ask us about getting one for themselves.  

And then one day someone asked us if we could make a case for her extra- large iPad.   We really liked the way the iPad bag came out, so we made a couple to donate to silent auctions associated with a couple of craft fairs that we were a part of.  The first picture above shows the front  of a regular iPad bag.

The picture above shows the back of the small iPad bag with its phone pocket.

We still don't have a catalog entry for these bigger bags because the bulk of our orders are custom orders.  We really love custom work, but it's hard to put a custom item in a catalog.  So here's what you should do if you want to order one of our Not-So-Small bags or a bigger bag:  Email us directly at gdiehn@mindspring.com or at weRpiecework@gmail.com and tell us what length, width, and depth you want the bag to be;  tell us the colors and materials that you like;  tell us if you want any pockets (and tell us the length, width and thickness of your phone if you want a phone pocket) and where you want it or them placed.  All of our straps are adjustable and come with a no-slip piece of material that rests on the wearer's shoulder.  You can send the payment by Paypal or pay us by check.

We'll write back with confirmation of our understanding of your order and with any questions we still have.  We will write back and forth until we understand each other.  Our prices range from $25 (plus $4 for shipping and handling) for the Not-So-Small cross-body bags to $35 for most iPad bags (plus $5 for shipping and handling) to $50 for laptop bags (plus $8 for shipping and handling).  All iPad and laptop bags are fully padded between the double layers of material.  All of these bags have a main compartment as well as a full-width and height front pocket and back pocket.  The back pocket is unflapped for easy access while the front and middle compartments are covered by a velcro-closing flap.

We are happy to design unusual bags for you and will work out a price based on the size and amount of work involved.  Below are some examples of our Not-So-Small bags and iPad bags.  The standard size of a Not-So-Small bag is 8" high x 6" wide x 2" deep.  Below is a scan of my own NSS bag that is stuffed with two calendars, two sketchbooks, a small Shara wallet (also overstuffed), a checkbook,

several pens, my keys, and my phone plus several random pieces of paper-- receipts, etc.  This is the best bag I've ever owned.  I like the size (not too big, and the material itself is very light, so there's no extra weight from heavy leather or canvas) and its seemingly endless ability to hold more and more.  I often clip small foldup grocery bags to one of the D rings.