Fibremood Issue 39 has just been released and I made the Nico tote. I had a good fossick in the stash and decided to use a couple of dingo flour sacks, which come with a little backstory:

When my eldest son bought his house he found a dropsheet which had been made from Dingo Flour sacks stitched together. I caught him using it and quickly confiscated it.

There were 24 flour sacks in the dropsheet, so I washed and unpicked them – this was quite a painstaking process as they had been zigzagged together. They had lots of paint on them and some had some mould, so they needed to be treated.

For those of you not from Western Australia, the Dingo Flour Mill is a heritage listed building on the highway that runs along the ocean in North Fremantle. The Dingo has become a familiar and loved sign for locals and I have read that it is repainted every month, but I can’t think that’s right. This photo is taken from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo_Flour_sign) – I tried to take one as I was being driven past, but it was impossible.

Anyway, the flour sacks are highly sought after and are quite collectible. I had three of the original sacks (still sewn up) in my possession, but all of a sudden I had another 24 in rather dubious condition.

What’s interesting about these flour sacks is that they all have the word “Sponge” written across the back, and occasionally the front, which I assume refers to cake. Someone obviously made a lot of cakes!

I’ve been meaning to check my dingoes. I think they vary in shape. The one above looks like a cub, but I’m sure some of them are more mature looking.

Anyway, on to the Fibremood Nico. This pattern is available in the latest edition of Fibremood magazine, and is a very large and practical tote. It has a huge space inside and a large pocket on either side on the outside. Every seam is finished with bias binding and there is more used for the handles. I made a lot of bias binding from the plain part of the flour sacks.

According to the Fibremood instructions Nico needs a sturdy and shape retaining fabric to ensure it stands up nicely. The Dingo flour sacks are made from a thickish cotton but they are not really sturdy, so I interfaced the whole lot. This made it a pain to sew but it certainly stands up on its own.

The design caused me some issues with how best to utilise the flour sacks and I’m sure at some point in the future, someone is going to be aghast at the fact that I have folded the sacks in half, thereby hiding their full glory. However, I have made unpicking fairly simple!

I did manage to get the word “sponge” on each of the pockets.

If I were to make this bag again, I think I would use the dingo part on the lower section of the bag, moving the pockets to the inside. I would retain the bias binding but make the handles more substantial, perhaps with wider bias. This isn’t as simple as it sounds as the handles begin at the base seam, travel up past the pockets, thereby finishing them off neatly, disappear into the inside of the bag, where they live. They are not attached to the very top of the bag.

This bag is huge. It would make a great beach tote or shopping bag. I’ve been using it as my regular tote and it is lovely to use.

I thought the handles wouldn’t be nice to use but they are surprisingly comfortable, however I don’t know how well they will stand the test of time and use.

Misses G & E are always up for a bit of sewing, but now I have to have one on each knee it’s getting tricky – they are heavy! E is trying to take the photo with my watch and G is pulling faces. We were making bedding for the class pet – a plastic chameleon that lives in a tank. G had brought it home, and it has to have accessories made from things found around the home. There were cute pipe cleaner toys, painted pebbles and a bath. I forgot to take a photo! However, it now have a blanket and pillow, so it should be very comfortable!