Mary Poppins carpet bag

[Draphin]

Should we put a call out on the boards to all RPFers in San Fran any one going or who would want to Please let us know.

 

[Draphin]

Ok walking around a mall today I found two Fabric stores that had some interesting stuff. As fate would have it my wife had her camera with her so I took some shots of the fabric. I thought I might post some pics and see what you guys think.

 

[chwbcc]

Okay please forgive the bump of an old thread which is probably long since dead. But with the release of the "Saving Mr. Banks" there may be some popularity or interest that might surface and here is some information I have discovered in the process of researching making my own carpet bag.

Here is a great photo of the D23 listing. Its high resolution and you can see the great detail in the the shape of the leather strappings and the nail heads that tack them to the inner frame.

You can also see the material "pilling" because this is an actual carpet bag.

Note: Carpet bags were generally made of carpet remnants because of their ease to carry and to stow in tight compartments. They would protect the contents from the friction of traveling and cushion them from the constant bouncing in storage.



So if you are looking for some authentic materials I would start looking at rugs and carpets of the time. Here is a link to an over stock item that is close to the design but it is a modern version of the style.

Hand-Tufted Mandara Transitional Floral Black Wool Rug (5' x 7'6") | Overstock.com Shopping - The Best Deals on 5x8 - 6x9 Rugs

Note: working on sets and specifically with props this bag was probably made on the set from remnants of carpets that were on the sounds stages for old productions. The reason for this is it is difficult to find several similar bags so squaring off identical pieces from a carpet that was laying around would be easier than hunting down several bags. (which is still possible)

I am going to take a stab at creating a template and tutorial for this bag because my wife would love to have one for Christmas. When I get it finished I'll post it up here!

I hope this helps everyone.

 

[nickytea]

I would love to see what kind of template you come up with; and perhaps we might be able to convince someone to weave the carpet custom for our purposes ...

 

[chwbcc]

I would love to see what kind of template you come up with; and perhaps we might be able to convince someone to weave the carpet custom for our purposes ...

I have though about this and it is possible to recreate the carpet with latch hook and then trimming the tassels short then combining it out to create the fluffy look.

 

[chwbcc]

Okay here is where I am at right now. Sorry if you can't see the photo above, I have it in a private gallery on Facebook so my wife can't see it until Christmas.

I found the pattern on line for historic carpet bags. I originally intended to make this bag out of actual carpet like the original Poppins Bag but I couldn't afford it right now. There are a few similar carpets on the market which could work for the bag but they are about $300 and cutting up a $300 carpet for an experiment was in my budget right now.

So I found some upholstery fabric that is pretty close to the Broad Way bag and decided that $4.50 a yard was much more pst affective.

SO I printed out the instructions I found but they lacked any real photo references so I had to actually read! WTF! I managed to recreate the actual Sides and Gussets and was able to repurpose an old leather couch for the bottom.

There is still some work to be done but this is where I am at right now!

Everything from here on out needs to be hand sewn.

Not long now!