Embroidery

All posts in the Embroidery category

Round Alice Bag

Published August 21, 2014 by kurolace

Hi there! Well, it’s been a while again… Lately life hasn’t been too much fun. Just a lot of stuff isn’t the way I’d like it to be and I often have trouble imagining that I’ll ever be free to live my own life….   Well, to escape from all that drama, I usually make stuff. Lately I discovered a Chinese book on handbags which all have fairy tale themes. I don’t read Chinese, but I was able to combine the images with my own sewing know-how to make a very cute Alice in Wonderland themed bag. My mom wanted to know how much I’d sell it for, but this first one I’ll probably keep (its not as professionally finished as I’d like it to be). If I do make another to sell, I think it would be in the $50 range. Does that seem too expensive? Keep in mind, all the applique has to be done by hand!

There wasn’t a pattern for the actual bag, so I had to make it up myself, and I’ve never sewn in-the-round like this before. I had to do the bag twice actually, because the first time I somehow messed up my circumference measurements.

The bag is 10.5″ in diameter, made from faux suede with interfacing (to stiffen it) and a cotton lining. The strap is long enough to be worn cross the body (my preferred arrangement), or can be adjusted to be shorter. The applique are done with a lovely 60% wool, 40% rayon felt (a Japanese brand). There’s gold colored beads, key-chain rings, and gold embroidery thread for the charm-bracelet design.

alicebag1DSCN1872DSCN1868

There are a few things I’ll fix for next time. I meant for the tabs which attach the D-rings to the bag to be in the seam, not sewn on the outside of the bag, but I forgot to do it, and then having done the bag twice, I got lazy and just put them on the outside. The strap could stand to be about 3 inches longer, really. And on the applique I think that I’ll do the embroidered chain (on the watch) for the top chain part of the charms bracelet (the little row of beads leading towards the upper corner of the bag).

I wanted to add a fur ball pom pom key-chain (they show it with one in the design book), but I’ve been frustrated by the fact that I can only find real-fur ones, not faux ones. Idk… I’m not strictly against fur, but since I used faux-suede, I think adding a real-fur accessory would be rather odd.

What do you think?

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Christmas Gift for Dad – Embroidered Hankerchiefs

Published December 23, 2012 by kurolace

Here’s the gift I’m giving my dad this Christmas. He does actually use handkerchiefs, and asked for some new ones. I found some blank cotton ones at Sears in the men’s department. 6 in a box, Docker’s Brand. There were some fancier ones there too, with Monograms on them. Well since I have an embroidery machine, I figured, why not monogram them myself?

Of course, this was a learning experience and they didn’t come out perfectly. But none were ruined either! The main issue was centering the design… I couldn’t find my hooping aide / template thingy, so I sort of eyeballed it…. wrong, most of the time, lol. The other issue was that there is a decorative “ribbon” stripes on the handkerchief, and the pile was apparently different than for the rest of the hanky, so there were some stitch issues there too…

I don't particularly like 3 letter monograms, so I just used my dad's first initial.

I don’t particularly like 3 letter monograms, so I just used my dad’s first initial.

Next time I’ll try to plan ahead and either make some from scratch (which is kind of a pain, IMO), or buy the embroidery blanks type (special items meant to be embroidered). Then maybe it’ll go a little bit better!