The Ivy Arch Flea Bag

When Daniela Gargiulo, aka "Ivy Arch," wrote to us all the way from England to tell us about her wonderful handmade quilted "Ivy Arch Flea Bag" gigbag, we immediately asked for her permission to include it on the Flea Museum webpage! She readily agreed, and when we asked her to tell us all about it, this is what she wrote:

I live in the seaside town of Worthing, in West Sussex, in the UK. I’m a major ukulele enthusiast and I set up Brighton Ukulele Sundays and Wukulele Uke Jams, too, and last year I even organized the three-day International Wukulele Festival, right here in Worthing!

I was taught to embroider and sew as a child by my mother, and went on to study fashion design at Middlesex Polytechnic, too. For my birthday I bought myself a large piece of Sanderson’s beautiful Hayward fabric in turquoise. The print is inspired by the textures and patterns used to decorate 1950s Poole pottery, and it's from Sanderson’s lovely collection of reprinted iconic 50s designs. I wanted to make something quite special from this special fabric, but it also had to be something I could use every day, so I decided to make a new quilted gigbag for my beloved Flea ukulele!

I added a side panel to the classic gigbag pattern to give the bag more structure and shape, as is standard on all those dreary black uke carrying cases. Then I channel-quilted the bag to give it a more "deluxe" feel, using curved lines to echo the shapes of the vases in the fabric and also to echo the Flea's curves, too. I also put a shorter zipper along the bottom of the bag as I thought it looked neat, and sewed a strap adjuster with a D-ring onto the strap so that I can either sling it across my back when I’m cycling, or shorten it up into a handle for hand-carrying, too.

Needless to say, I’m very happy with the end result, and I already have orders to make two more bags for friends, and now my daughter is also begging me to make one for her, too!"

So, you can read the full details of the making of this wonderful Flea Bag, and see some "how-to" photos of the whole process, too, on Daniela's lovely "Ivy Arch Blog" page, and if you think you'd like to have one of her fabulous Flea Bags for your own precious Flea, be sure to visit her charming "Ivy Arch Shop" on the Etsy website, too, where everything in the shop is individually handmade by Daniela herself at her seaside home in Worthing!

UPDATE: Daniela has written in to bring us up to date with the latest news on her Ivy Arch Flea Bags, and she tells us that there's now a whole bunch of them available on her excellent UkeBag.com website, and, best of all, it's just in time for all your Christmas shopping needs, too... hint, hint!