Craftiosity – June 2017: Shibori Tote Bag

Craftiosity is one of my favourite subscription boxes, not only because it’s so unique in being a DIY/craft box but because unlike most subscription boxes, it gives you an experience and a peek into a new craft that you might not have tried before such as tie-dying which is the process in the June Craftiosity box!

The project for the June Craftiosity box is to make a Shibori Tote Bag. Shibori is a traditional Japanese method of tying or folding fabric prior to dying it to give the fabric a unique and distinctive tie-dyed pattern.

As with the previous boxes, you receive really detailed instructions (although you can watch their easy to follow Youtube tutorial instead if you prefer) along with all of the main tools, fabric and items you need to create the project. With the June box, you don’t just receive the bag to dye but a few fabric pieces to practice on as well as all of the other tools.

As well as an option to practice, you can just start directly with the bag which is what I did and the instructions explain a few different Shibori methods of tying and folding the bag to make different patterns such as a stripe, abstract or more circular pattern, I chose the latter and I love how it turned out.

The process of prepping, tying and dying the bag is quite relaxing despite the gloves and face mask and it’s something I haven’t ever done before so it was interesting to try a new crafting technique. The steps were very easy to follow, it was a very quick and enjoyable process and you get a gorgeous new tie-dyed tote bag out of it too!

From start to finish it only took a couple of days, it was great for a tie-dye beginner like me and it’s a great practical item – you could even make it as a handmade gift for someone too as it’s looks great! The craftiosity subscription itself would be an amazing and unique gift as well.

I’m really happy with this months box and I love the tote bag I now have as it looks so unique and I actually use tote bags all of the time for shopping and storing products in so I know I’ll get a lot of use out of it too.