Lately we were busy to come up with patterns and tutorials for knitted and crocheted paper twine bags. The strong paper twine is perfect for bag-making: strong, durable, available in many colors and due to its stiffness the bags look great even when they’re empty. Even though the PaperPhines are passionate crocheters and knitters we have been focusing mainly on jewelry in the last two years so the question was how to start making a bag at all…

This jeansblue bag is the first one we knitted and therefore we looked for inspiration and available patterns on the internet to start with. The pattern for this bag we found on the highly-recommended Purl Bee blog though the original design is by Italian craftista and blogger Elisa.

When you compare the original bags made with cotton yarn with the paper yarn bag you immediately see that the paper bags looks distinctively different. The paper yarn is so smooth that the lace pattern does not show as much – though the “holes” you get are still apparent.

Knitting Needles adjusted to the paper twine & Supplies:

As promised in the last PaperPhine newsletter we’re busily putting the finishing touches onto the Paper Twine Tote Bag tutorial. A great knitting project and an even greater tote bag (prepare to defend it because people will definitely try to convince you to hand it over to them as a present). Just give us a couple more days and all details will be worked out!

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We’re very excited and happy to announce that there is a cool step-by-step tutorial by us in the brand new Paper Runway Magazine. Hot off the press the second issue will not only show you how to make one of these graphic and fun Paper Twine Bracelets but the magazine also features paper goodness, new and hot paper products, reports about paper artists and designer and a lot more. Head over to the online version here – not the whole magazine is online though – or treat yourself with a real printed-on-paper copy.

In case you’re wondering which Paper Twines we’ve used to create our bracelet: Superthick Paper Twine can be found here (Selection of 3 x 11 yards in different colors) and here (50 yards of one color) as well as in our etsy shop. You need about 4 yards of Superthick Paper Twine in total for one bracelet (or 3 x 1.3 yards in different colors) so any of these choices will give you plenty to work and play with. Have fun!

This easy-to-make barrette takes advantage of one of Paper Twine’s outstanding characteristics: it’s stiffness that is especially evident when the Paper Twine is cut in short pieces. Instead of the bright colors I used you can of course use more subtle hues as well – think about the person who will wear the piece and the hail color when choosing the Paper Twines you want to use.

Supplies and Tools:
- an empty barrette from you local craft store – I used a 1.6 in (4cm) long one
- Paper Twine: about 4 x 20 in (50cm) in different colors
- a small piece of a heavy fabric to stitch on
- transparent sewing thread and a needle that goes with it
- some glue
- scissors

First prepare the piece of fabric you’ll sew the pieces of Paper Twine onto. Make it slightly longer and about three times as wide as the “empty” barrette. You’ll trim the fabric later on to its final size. Also prepare your pieces of Paper Twine that will be sewn onto the fabric: a total of about 40 pieces (2 in (5cm) long) in your chosen colors. You can cut them to the final lenght after the piece is finished.

The piece of fabric you just cut is folded in half to make it stiffer – this will help a lot when it’s fixed onto the barrette in the end. Make a big knot into your sewing thread because transparent thread tends to be rather slippery – you’ll need about 30 in (75cm) to finish your piece. As you can see I doubled the sewing thread (see next picture). The rather knot is hidden in between the two layers of fabric.

Start stitching. Once you’ve secured the first piece of Paper Twine the needle comes out again about a bit before this first piece of Paper Twine and you stitch backwards over the second piece of Paper Twine! Remember to always stitch backwards over the Paper Twines – like this it’s easier to avoid. If a gap nevertheless appears (like in the third picture above) come out with the needle in between the two Paper Twines and fill the gap with another piece of Paper Twine.

After a little bit of stitching your piece should look like this. Now it’s time to trim the fabric …

…. preferable like this! What you do is you cut the top layer of fabric very very close to the sewn line, the bottom layer of fabric to about 0.2in (0,5cm). The bottom layer of fabric is folded toward the middle and secured with some glue. Now is also a good time to trim the piece of fabric at the end you just stopped sewing at – cut shortly after the last piece of Paper Twine sewn onto it. A little glue will prevent it from starting to fray.

Now we can start to stitch “back” – the idea is to fix the other side of the fabric that has not been glued to the middle during this process. Fold this other part of the unstitched fabric towards the middle as well and fix it there with the stitched you make now back towards the “beginning”. I don’t double-stitch over all the pieces of Paper Twine that are already in place – only over about every tenth or so. If you still have gaps between the pieces of Paper Twine then this is the time to fill them up – come up with the needle in the gap, add a piece of Paper Twine and stitch over it…

Once you’re back at where you started stitching in the first place it’s time to trim that side of the fabric as well. Instead of simply cutting the fabric you can also fold it onto the backside and fix it with some stitches. Use some glue to prevent fraying and leave the glue to dry before continuing if necessary. You can also add a last piece of Paper Twine to prevent too much of the fabric to show in the finished pieces.

The metal barrette piece is sewn on (on both sides) and also glued onto the fabric for further stability. Leave to dry depending on the glue you used.

The last step is to cut the Paper Twine pieces to your preferred length. Twist them slightly between your fingers to make them curl upwards a bit. And finally: enjoy wearing!

I hope the tutorial is clear – I did my best to take pictures all of the steps and to explain all the in-betweens. Drop me line if you have any further question or comments – and as always I love to see what you’re coming up with as well so pictures in the mailbox are always a reason for some jumping-of-joy!

Tag for the box containing PaperPhine’s Mother Day Card – and the box with the card inside!

Hi Mom, I know you read the blog (you’re the bright Austrian spot showing up on the Analytics map!) – but please skip the rest of this article! All other Moms please keep reading – you hopefully will enjoy the latest project out of my studio!

Austrian Mother’s Day will be in 2 weeks (May 8th) so it was about time to think about a Mother’s Day Card! Working with the current two favorite materials on the studio desk – Red Paper Twine and Architect’s Cardboard with Holes – I came up with this easy and quick to make card that is stylish, quirky and will hopefully find a special place on my Mom’s wall once it’s framed!

Mother’s Day Card: Spiky Front and “Stitched” Back

Materials and Tools:

- Red Paper Twine
- a card-sized piece of “Cardboard with Holes” (for German speakers: Lochkarton) that can be found it stores for architect’s supplies and for a limited time in the PaperPhine shop
- rubber stamp (“Mom” or any other personalisation you can think of) and inkpad
- a small box to put the card into – it’s three-dimensional so a simple envelope won’t do this time
- scissors

How to…
- cut 58 small pieces of red paper twine (about 1.6 in / 4cm) – you can cut them to the final length after the “stitching”; if you want to make a bigger heart you can cut more pieces along the way
- mark a heart shape with a fine pen on the card-sized piece of cardboard with holes – or go freestyle, start with symmetrical outlines and fill the interior afterwards
- take 2 of the cut pieces of twine and thread them through the first hole and then back through the second
- keep in mind that the desired outcome are “spikes” on one side of the card and a “stitched” pattern on the other side

After “stitching” and threading the whole heart with pieces of twine you can cut the spikes to the desired length and bend them so the heart shape looks fuller and redder. Finish off the card with a small imprint saying “MOM”!

Leftover pieces of cardboard and cardboard can be made into a nice tag that goes with the card and personalises the cardboard box containing the card!

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter weekend with a lot of chocolate eggs, sunshine and creative energy for all your projects!