Bentornato

This is what the evening sky looks like in Firenze these days. In September in Italy, it feels like everyone is starting a new school year. It is reminiscent of my elementary school through college days, when I would return in September with a new haircut, new clothing, new books, binders and teachers, sharing stories about my summer vacation with my friends. The same thing happens here. Everyone is so excited to be back here, to see each other, to tell each other how they spent their time in August. Blondes turned brunette, everyone's hair is longer or shorter, everyone's skin is bronzed. New restaurants and locali are opening and old familiar ones are re-opening their doors. I love you, Firenze, but I will never, ever, ever, be here in July again.. and by the sound of things I don't think I will ever see this place in August either. September is just gorgeous, the autumn breeze makes the city magical again.

The skyline of Chianti on a gorgeous Sunday evening.

View from the Ponte a Santa Trinità.

Since you last heard from me, I've been to New York and back. My return after being away for seven consecutive months was interesting. I know we all make fun of the Italians for their lack of urgency and the pace at which they do things, but once you adjust to living life this way it is extremely difficult to return to the pace of a city such as New York.  My brain does not function as quickly as it did before living in Italy. I do not want to give you the impression that I do not still love the city that I will always call my home. I am and will always be a born and bred New Yorker at heart. However, there are small things like getting my morning coffee in midtown that made my blood pressure rise. I never thought I would say it but I no longer enjoy coffee in paper cups with plastic lids. I missed the clanking of the espresso glasses on the saucer at the bar in the morning.. and twice in the afternoon. This is only one small thing of many that I missed. Needless to say, it was absolutely wonderful to return to my second home.

I have been back in school for only 5 days and I've made a lot of progress quickly. I think I had a lot of bottled-up creative energy so when I got back I jumped right in and was able to finish a pattern in half a day, and nearly the entire bag in a week's time. Above you see the sketch of the bag on which I am working. It's a unisex style gathered towards the top, with a strap resembling a belt that can be worn across the chest messenger style or over one shoulder. I am using black camel skin for the exterior of the bag, and faded bandannas as the lining. Some of you who have known me since college and saw my fashion show freshman year will remember the bandannas: My homage to Cornell Design League.

The lack of one zipper pull resulted in a four hour adventure to the industrial town of Scandicci involving an aborted mission on my bicycle. By the way, my bicycle survived on the street for the entire month of August, all parts in tact. I still cannot believe it myself.

I am also using a thicker guage thread on this bag which Acci, our dear lovely machine, did not appreciate. It took me a few hours to thread it properly, as all of the settings for the tension must change. It amazes me how the slightest change such as unscrewing the bobbin 1/25th of a millimeter will change the stitches completely. The heavier thread makes a significant difference as a design detail, which will be apparent when you see the final product.

I am learning a new technique, which is insertion of a "filetto". This is a cord that runs around the perimeter where you have seams on a bag. It is a functional design detail, a way of finishing what would otherwise be a regular seam or raw edge. I cut the leather into strips, and passed it through the spaccatrice to make it thinner. Then I threaded the strip of leather and a cord made of rubber through another machine simultaneously. The machine wraps the leather around the cord, sealing it on one end. It almost looks like spaghetti. Then you thread it through again and it makes small folds that look like teeth in the photo above. This allows the cord to bend smoothly around a curve without puckering. The thing that amazes me most about this is that there is a machine to do just this. 

After gluing this cord around the perimeter of the round base of the bag, I stitched it down with the sewing machine. Of course there is a special foot that must be assembled first that has a space in the center, allowing the cord to pass through. Once stitched in place, I had to scythe the edges where the two ends of the filetto meet, so they overlap neatly to finish the circumference almost seamlessly. I had to cut the rubber inside precisely so ends meet ends, and then I had to (very carefully) scythe the leather. Above all, the most important thing I took out of this exercise is how this detail is supposed to look when it is done properly. On a high-end bag, the filetto should be executed flawlessly and is one of many details that should and cannot be overlooked by quality craftsmen.

Many of you have asked how long it takes to complete a bag. Once the pattern is complete, the bags I have constructed should take approximately 12 hours start to finish. If all goes as planned and if acci behaves properly, I should be done with this bag tomorrow, just in time for my departure... back to NY!! I know, I move quickly. 

Stay tuned... 

Soddisfazione.

I have been carrying the first bag I completed and it is an incredible sense of accomplishment. I love seeing the look on people's faces when I tell them I made it. Some people simply do not believe me, which is a very good sign. Very soon, those of you in NY will get to see it in person.

These are the pattern pieces for Borsa #2. I am attached to my Filson field bag, so I am making a bag that resembles it, of course with some very important modifications.

I am delighted to say that there are some things I can do in my sleep now, like the interior zippered pockets that used to take me half a day to insert.

The construction of this bag is quite different from the others I've done. As always, we work from the interior out, so  I started with the lining. Pictured above is the lining of what will be the exterior pocket, attached to the leather which is part of the exterior of the bag.

Tracolla attached to the quadrante (main part)

These are the things you will never see unless you cut open a bag. This is reinforcement on the interior where the handles attach to the "quadrante of the bag. Once stitched down, I have to pull the threads tight, knot them, and glue "seta" (silk) on top to secure them in place. The "fodera" (lining) will hide this later. You can see there is a piece of "felpa" (the cream colored fabric) which gives the leather a little more "corpo," which means literally, body. Without it, the leather would be flimsy and would not give enough support to the bag.

My machine stitching has come a long way since the days when Acci used to eat my bag. The small cuts in the leather that you see on the upper right hand corner are the "segni" which are markings that will line up with the corresponding parts. I use them as a guide to connet the pieces when I am stitching them together.

As I mentioned before, the construction of this bag is different from the ones I have done. In the earlier models, I completed the entire lining, followed by the exterior, and then would stitch the two separate components together to make one complete form. In this bag the pieces of the lining correspond directly with the leather pieces of the exterior, and I attached them to their corresponding parts. The lining overlaps with the adjacent lining pieces, and each leather piece "sandwiches" on top of the next, so I can stitch them down and have a finished seam. If you look at the photo you can see that I am constructing the exterior in almost a ring form, so I can then attach the quadrante to both sides. This will all make much more sense when you see the next series of photos, I promise!

My days are winding down here, and I will be going home next week with my handmade creations in tow. I will continue to post from there, as there are many weekend adventures I have not shared with you. There will be at least one more post before I am on my way...

Quasi finita...

Quasi finita... almost done. I do love my creation, but I am getting sick of looking at this bag. It happens to all of us. We work on something for such a long time, that by the time we finish it we are just over it and onto the next. My strategy is to set it aside and put it out of sight for a few days. Then, when I look at it again, I have a hard time believing that I made it.

I hesitated in posting these because it's not quite there just yet. Just when I thought I was finished, I decided the straps are still not long enough. Of course this genius idea requires 4 additional "gimelli" which I did not have. Fortunately one of my classmates was venturing out to Scandicci to buy other materials so she picked them up for me, otherwise, it would have been a half day's adventure to get these four tiny little metal pieces. It is so unlike me to not buy several extra components of something I might need, but one of the things I have started to practice is the art of conservation. This is second nature to most Italians. They use and re-use. In school, we use every single inch of leather. Nothing goes to waste, and we find a use for everything. They do not buy in bulk and they do not over-buy anything. This holds true for materials, clothing, food. They buy what they need, and I too (if you can believe it!) have made this my new habit.

Unless I decide to make additional laborious changes this bag will soon be complete. I decided to move onto the next project, and will complete my tracolla in my downtime. 

In the next few days I hope to update you on some of the things I've been doing during my free time, including several trips to the seaside as well as the most incredible Dave Matthews concert I have seen to date. I will be in NY August 1-September 2. And then I shall return...