I lied...

Okay so maybe I lied about giving up on nigiri bags. After I wrote the last post I was struck by the fact that I'd never made a bag of my favourite kind of sushi, inari nigiri. The reason is simple, I'd always thought that inari was too plain to be decorative. Most of the time it looks like a plain brown pouch, like this.

Don't let the plain exterior fool you, inari nigiri is a seasoned tofu pocket and it's a lot more flavourful than other sushi rolls. After browsing sushi images online I changed my mind. Perhaps inari could be colourful and interesting after all.

 

Inspired by more decorative creations like this I decided it was finally time to show my love of nigiri. Using a slightly chunky square shoulder bag wrapped in a little pocket of tan fleece I came up with this tribute to a delicous dish.

 

 

More pictures here.
 
For those of you craving more brightly coloured sushi rolls, don't worry! Here's the next one I made, a super sized tuna roll. It's the biggest bag I've made this year!

 

For scale here it is with some of my other bags. Find the listing here.

 

 

On the other end of the scale I also just completed another coin purse. It's the same size as my small maki roll purse (the smallest round roll in the picture above) but using my special salmon roe pom-poms. Here it is, my salmon roe and cucumber sushi purse!

 

 

I'm going to be quite busy visiting family over the next few days but when I get back I'll explain more about how I make my bags, and just why (despite appearances) it really is recycling.

 

 

See you then!

 

LL x x x

 



The new nigiri

So last week I decided to add a couple of smaller nigiri bags to the collection. I'd been out on a raid locally the week before and picked up several purses, wallets and handbags that I knew were desperate to become sushi rolls. I've also been asked recently why I haven't been making any vegetarian sushi roll bags, an excellent question given that I'm a vegetarian! I took this as a challenge and decided that vegetarian nigiri was the way to go!

The first was a little brown cosmetics bag that I founds in a local charity shop. It has clearly never been used and was ripe for re purposing! A day spent carefully cutting out petal shapes later and voila, asparagus nigiri.

Whoever this reaches I hope it inspires someone to eat their greens! More here.

Next the wallet, and I decided something very simple was needed. A batch of brightly coloured felt arrived for me in the morning and that was all the inspiration I needed - the beautiful yellow seemed perfect for sweet omelet.

As you can see the finish is very simple, but I wanted to keep the functionality of the wallet intact. It's still easy to open and close when you need to grab your change or cards in a hurry! More on the wallet here.

So for now I think the muse of nigiri is sated. I'm currently working on a larger more traditional sushi roll handbag which should be finished soon. Once that's complete I have lots more felt for inspiration and some interesting materials on the way, including some small red pom poms that I just know will be perfect as roe. You read it here first!

Thanks for reading, love and luck

LL xx

Edit: I've just found out that the reason I've had above average traffic on the listing for my asparagus nigiri clutch is that it was featured on Trendhunter in an article called 'The Plush Asparagus Nigiri Sushi Clutch Purse Looks Good Enough to Eat'. Thanks so much to Trendhunter, always lovely to find out that people are excited by my pieces!


Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone (Google Affiliate Ad)

Nigiri rolls are here!

The last few days I've been adding some new kinds of sushi bags to my shop - nigiri sushi. Nigiri (hand-formed) sushi is a bed of rice topped with fish or sweet omlette and sometimes bound in place with a little strip of nori. The rectangular shape of nigiri sushi gave me the opportunity to work with square handbags and clutches.

This first bag is shrimp tail nigiri. The rice base is a little clutch bag and because it had two zip-pulls I was able to add two condiments, soy sauce and wasabi. More pictures here!

The second is a tako nigiri - octopus sushi! This is a larger bag, a full sized handbag with faux-leather handles. The zip-pull condiment for this bag is wasabi and the nori is a strip of fleece which you open with a popper. Take a look at the listing here!

Over the next few days I'm hoping to put together a couple of smaller nigiri, of a similar scale to my little maki roll purses. I also have a plan to make a roe maki roll using mini craft pom poms. If it works out I will show you how very soon.

Love and luck, LL x x x