Our first quest: comic wallets

Bueno, pues aquí va nuestro primer web quest, que va a consistir en hacer carteras, bolsos, correas para relojes, carpetas, estuches, fundas para el bonobús... o cualquier otra cosa que se os antoje con papel de comic (aunque también puede ser con anuncios de revistas o periódicos, dibujos propios, posters..., lo que más os guste mientras sea de papel). Vamos a aprender a hacer cosas prácticas con nuestras propias manos y de una manera original.

Este es un ejemplo de una cartera, con su monedero, su billetero, su tarjetero y su plástico transparente para poner fotos, o el DNI...

Las instrucciones para lograrlo van a estar en inglés. Para todo aquel que se pierda hay un par de links a diccionarios bilingües para que busquen todo aquello que no entiendan (aunque lo más complicado ya vendrá traducido).

1) Materials:
- Adhesive cover for books (forro adhesivo).
- Comics (or newspapers, posters, drawings...)
- Card (cartulina).
- Scissors.
- Glue.
- Thread.
- Velcro or plastic hooks and eyes.

2) How to do it:
- Cut every piece of paper with the shape you want it to have (see links for examples).
- Paste together the comic (or newspaper, poster...) with the card, to make it more resistant, and afterwards cover it with the adhesive cover for books.
- Now, you have to sew it together. Be careful when you do it!!!!! You have to think in which order you have to sew the different parts before you start.
Note: make a drawing of what you want to do before you do it and think about which parts you need to make and sew before.

3) How to sew it:
- First of all, after putting a long thread into a needle, you have to do a knot with the two extremes of the thread.
- Afterwards, there are two ways of sewing it:
a) Inclined: you introduce the needle in one corner, a few centimeters below the border, and you continue doing the same process on the same side of what you are sewing, leaving a few centimeters between each stitch and always sewing parallel to the border.
b) Squared: it's the same process as before, the only difference is that, the first stitch has to be double (you have to do it twice over the same spot), and that, after the second stitch, before making the third, you pass the needle under the thread, so that, when you do the third stitch, you stretch the previous one, giving it a square form.

For more information look at the links I have provided in the blog under the name 'carteras de cómic' (these links are in Spanish).

I have also added a couple of images that you could download and print to create one of these wallets.



Once you have done the wallet, or a bag, or a folder... take a picture of it and send it to me, I'll publish it here.

The evaluation will be as follows:
- Everyone able to do at least a simple kind of envelope, or a watch strap, or a simple purse, will pass.
- Those who make a more complete and complicated task, a wallet with several compartments of different sizes, for instance, will obtain a better mark in relation to the degree of difficulty of their work.
- The kind of stitch will be taken into account: the square stitch will be worth a better mark than the inclined one.
- The neatness of the job will be valued: the job must present a well covered paper - un papel bien forrado, sin arrugas-, a regularity in the stichtes, which have to be parallel to the border, and well proportioned elements in relation to the whole.
- Finally, the originality of the job will also count: the originality of the design, the paper, the thread and the card chosen, and the combination of these three.

Once they had been published, the wallets, etc, will be voted, and the people entering the blog will be able to choose their favourite work among all the ones displayed.

In the end, it is quite clear that the aim of this task is not just to encourage people to do handicraft, but to get them to use English in a different context than the academic one. If you have been able to do this job, then it is clear that you have had to understand at least a bit of English. Furthermore, making handicraft is a good way of spending part of our spare time.
I hope you enjoy the task!!