Sarah

Sarah

Sarah uses a spare room, a good sewing machine and her children's nap time to craft custom purses.

Sarah Owen had no idea her self-taught home ec project would someday be hanging off the shoulders of other women. Women she'll never meet. She has her mother and children to thank for that.

Owen, 33, is the owner and sole employee of S.T.O. Bags, located in Walla Walla. Located in Owen's guest room, to be specific.

She's never considered herself an exceptional fabric artist, but Owen began doodling a few years ago with a little Kenmore sewing machine, adequate for straight stitch and zigzag seams. "Just for fixing pants," she said.

Ideas and skills went up a notch when Owen was given a little cloth bag by her mother one Christmas. "I looked at it and thought, `I can make one of these, I just need it a little bigger.'" "I needed a bag that could hold one diaper, a wallet, wipies. And maybe a snack," she remembered with a laugh.

Owen began experimenting, based on her own needs and body frame. "I drew out a basic-like stick figure bag, then I measured my own body so I could see where it fit, what was comfortable."

Eventually she had created a prototype, although she had no idea of that at the time. But, like a childhood craft project, Owen put it away in a drawer before deciding, "OK, I'm going to use it, no matter what."

She could see her sewing flaws, but her friends were blind to tiny glitches and loved the bag, she said.

When two friends were celebrating birthdays, giving them their own Owen-crafted bag seemed like a good idea. One friend encouraged the novice seamstress to show the shoulder bag to her sister-in-law. That turned out to be Kathy Nelson, co-owner of Walla Walla's Studio Opal.

She's seen a lot of homemade purses, so she could appreciate the professional quality, clean lines and unique fabrics of Owen's bags, Nelson said. "I like the design style, how they fit perfectly under your arm."

Studio Opal's initial order was 21 bags, a number that made Owen a little nervous, she said. "I thought the style was there, the look was there, but I needed a better machine."

Her mother-in-law came to the rescue, buying a sewing machine capable of stitching through layer upon layer. From then on, her only obstacle to sewing was getting her three children to nap or rest on the same hour, she said.

And while she still relies on disassembled paper sacks for pattern paper ("I get one sheet of paper and I don't have to buy it."), she's beginning to experiment with new designs and materials, such as recycled leather.

This wearable art that rides perfectly on the shoulder fits with Owen's vision of the future. "Everything that is made today is made to be hands free." Purse makers will have to adjust to that, she added.

Article courtesy of the Walla Walla Union Bulletin.

You Can Find Sarah and her darling bags at The Farm Chicks Show.

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