Give an inexpensive pre made bag a pretty traditional sampler effect.

Way back in February I visited the CHSI stitches show at the NEC near Birmingham and had a fab time seeing lots of lovely new trends and products in the craft world. One of my favourite bits of the day was the bloggers brunch where I got to meet some of my blogging friends in real life, made some new blogging friends and had a lovely workshop and goody bag from DMC. 

At the show, whilst we chatted, we all started a little embroidery on the pre made linen drawstring bags using some printed Magic Sheet and Coloris thread from DMC. Most people cut out letters to make a phrase or name but I stuck the whole alphabet to my bag with the idea to make a sampler style embroidery. I did share the beginnings of this project on Instagram at the time.

You just peel the backing from the Magic sheet and press it firmly to your fabric and start stitching. I used a simple back stitch with 2 strands of the Coloris thread. I’ve got a guide to some basic embroidery stitches if you need some help. I dotted the i & j with french knots. Once the alphabet was completed I just rinsed it under the tap and the magic sheet turned to jelly then vanished.

Once it dried I used a water erasable pen to draw a wavy border.

I worked the embroidery on the border in the same way as the alphabet, 2 strands of Coloris thread with backstitch and lazy daisy stitches for the flowers and leaves.

The blue water erasable pen just washes out as easily as the magic sheet did. After a good ironing I was happy with the look but I was a bit disappointed that the darker pieces of the thread showed through where I had dragged them across the back between letters. It doesn't really show in the photos but in real life it was enough to annoy me! 

This is what slowed me down and made this take 2 months to finish. after leaving it on one side for a while the solution was a quick simple lining. 

I used a little bit of floral fabric from my stash. I just made a bag the same size as the drawstring bag, then wrong side out, popped it inside the embroidered bag. Then I turned the top edge under and top stitched round just under the drawstring casing.

I am happy now! A lovely new project bag.

I’ll be sharing this project at these link ups