Recycled cashmere bag...pillow?

I’m currently writing this in one of our local coffee shops in Stockbridge. The dogs have had a lovely sunny runaround in the park, al fresco breakfast in the cafe and are now snoozing under the table. I’ve got a flat white and a pain au chocolat and am tippety-typing this note to you all, in an attempt to distract myself from the stress of our flat currently being photographed and surveyed, ready to go on the market next week. Andrew is dealing with all the in-flat stress, handling the various people coming in and out judging and measuring and photographing our beloved home. My role is to take the doggies out and entertain them until everyone is gone, it’s too small a flat to have dogs underfoot whilst Important Stuff is happening. It’s a weird feeling to be honest, this is our first experience of selling property, and one for which we are extremely grateful. I’m very aware a lot of people can’t get on the property ladder at all, let alone have the privilege of selling and moving on from their first purchase. We’ve been so happy living here, it’s a real bittersweet moment to leave. But I’m excited for my Garden Era just around the corner…

Anyway, I digress. I’m here today to talk about this little pillow I made myself recently. I had been very kindly gifted some cashmere slitter tape, from Deborah of Dastardly Line. Deborah’s studio works exclusively with textile waste, including these beautiful fabric offcuts from cashmere mills. Slitter tape (LOL to the name) is created when cashmere fabric is trimmed, leaving behind these long skinny lengths of fabric. For those interested in sourcing this material for their own sewing practice, Nomad in Glasgow sells hanks of this cashmere.

Deborah painstakingly weaves these lengths together, to create beautiful textured blankets and scarves. I will most definitely be saving my pennies for a blanket for our new home, I’m waiting for a cream one to drop. I shamelessly stole her idea, weaving myself a small section from the cashmere I had on hand. Mine was a lovely blue to pink ombre design, with cream and grey. I had enough to create a small rectangle, which I pinned in place with safety pins as I went. I then sewed cream straight stitches through the centre of each row and column, to hold the weaves in place.

I love the texture of the resultant fabric. Between the woven strips of cashmere, contrasted against the almost-quilting lines of thread, it’s a lovely mix of textures. It’s also super soft, which lead me to consider what I would do with this little rectangle. Up until this point I had been creating for the sake of creation, I didn’t really have an end goal in mind for my fabric. The cashmere is so soft though, it lends itself to an item in contact with your skin. I work night shifts and sometimes have the opportunity to nap during my breaks. I figured a small napping cushion would be super useful to my current job, but didn’t want to waste the fabric as just a cushion. I didn’t want a cushion to become obsolete in time, if I ever stop working nights. And so the idea of a project bag with a cushion inner was born!

I used a remnant of white cotton from my stash, plus a matching blue zipper that I happened to have in my sewing box, to create a large zippered project bag. Separately, I created a little cushion insert, using cotton remnants and polyester stuffing left over from a dog bed (thoroughly washed first!). The cushion insert was a very simple rectangle stuffed with polyester and then sewn closed. The idea is that whilst I’m working nights I can use the bag with the cushion inner, for the occasional napping break. If/when I stop working nights, I can remove the cushion inner and voila, I’ll have a project bag! The bag will be imbued with all my memories of night work, all the dogs and cats (plus occasional guinea pig, chicken, seal pup and baby deer!) I’ve helped along the way <3