New DIY

Happy 2021!

I hope everyone had a good new year. I wanted to share with you my latest DIY project. Sharing my projects, has always been a great point of this blog.

Any long time readers will recognise this when I first show you. Back in 2011, shortly after I started Blue Glitter, I bought a suede satchel from Topshop. I didn't know at the time the bag had been used and returned and it was sadly damaged. I learned how to dye suede and the bag was dyed a navy blue. I still have and use that bag.

Last year I found the same bag in its original colour and I decided to use it as the base for my next project. I took inspiration from Urbanbling on Instagram for the crystal formation. I have honestly wanted to bedazzle a bag for years, probably since around when I started this blog, and first saw high end items being strassed. If you grew up in the 2000s you'll understand my hesitation because of the overwhelming amount of sparkly, tasteless junk that came out of that era!

I take my hat off to the professionals Like Chloe at Urbanbling The hours and patience that goes into these kinds of pieces is epic.

Originally I was going to cover the entire bag in gemstones, but there are issues such as the closure straps that it wouldn't work with. I also had to consider wear and tear and the fact, this particular bag is soft and unstructured.

I decided to mix sections of crystals. I chose the blue because the crystals have an opal like shine and I decided blue would be the best backdrop.

I have used these types of crystals before and they needed a strong but flexible adhesive, so I used a particular fabric glue that is tried and tested for me.

I cleaned the bag up when it arrived. I dyed the back, base, sides and handle and strap. I started out by bedazzling the front section but I did not dye this part of the bag because I was covering it in crystals. The process for this was to lay a section of glue and place the crystals individually using a wax pencil to pick them up. Each section needed 24 hours to fully dry.

Below are the step by step photos of the project.

The bag is a second hand bag from eBay.

 I ordered Angelus dye in light blue and some Swarovski style gemstones from eBay.

16 hours, 2.5 bottles of dye and hundred of gemstones later the bag is finished! 

If you have an item you want professionally strassed contact Chloe, her Instagram is linked above.