East meets West - Burlap meets Brocade

I've always liked the rustic look of burlap (aka gunny sack).....so when I saw that some bags of potato chips were sold in small burlap sacks....I immediately grabbed a handfull of them :P

Burlap is not the easiest material to sew as the coarse fibres are very loosely woven and frays like mad! My easy solution was to iron a piece of fusible interfacing on the wrong side (the one without prints) of the burlap. I also W stitched the edges just to be doubly sure that the burlap is not gonna disintegrate while I'm sewing it.

I wasn't really sure what to do with my burlap.....and then I saw the bright red piece of brocade that was still sitting on my sewing table from my scarf making project. And I thought to myself that it'd be so interesting to marry the two very different fabrics together. Think about it, the burlap is so coarse/sturdy/western............. ..........whereas the brocade is so silky smooth/delicate/chinese. It's the ultimate east meets west combination don't ya think?!
So I put the 2 fabrics together and turned them into a soft container for my sewing supplies. I absolutely love it.....to me, it's not just a pretty and functional item... but it also symbolises the east-west dichotomy! On yet another level, it also hints at deep-seated asian roots inspite of the very western exterior - ME!! (how apt that the burlap was actually a potato sack. "Eat potato" (jiak kan dang) = Being westernised)
Heh heh heh.....ok think I'm reading too much into it. Anyway, here's how my burlap container looks from another angle.
I just happened to have a small crate of clementines lying around (they are absolutely delicious...and tiny, so I eat like 5/day!).....I filled up my new burlap container with them....doesn't it just remind you of CNY??!!
Now I need to think what else can be made from the remaining 3 small burlap sacks!