I find nothing more enjoyable to sew, than bags and pouches.
While the basic process is pretty simple and the fabric usage and cost of materials comparably low, you (or the lucky person receiving your precious work) end up with a very versitile and practical item that can be used for years to come!
They’re also a wonderful canvas, to get creative with!
One of the ways I like to make my bags extra special, is to embroider my fabrics by hand, before sewing them into bags
I just posted a tutorial and free, printable PDF pattern for my very own project bag:
The Wildflower Project Bag
A main design feature of this bag (Although it is – of course – totally optional) is a little, hand embroidered design in the front right corner.
For this, I like to match the design and colours to the fabric I used for the lining.
I find this step really brings the entire bag together.
As there’s not just magically a matching embroidery pattern to each fabric you can buy, this means sketching up my own little patch, every time I make a new bag – especially since I never make the exact same bag twice.
(At least I haven’t done that yet)
Please note that in this post, I won’t be teaching you how to do embroidery in general.
But I’ll share how I make these designs, make sure they’re the right size for whatever bag I’m making and how I figure out where to position the embroidery on the fabric, to make sure it’s exactly where it is supposed to be on the final bag.
Choosing A Motive
When using a patterned fabric, it can be hard to find a pre-existing embroidery pattern.
So when I’m making a bag like this and having to make up the embroidery myself, I try to implement some of the motives and characteristics of the fabric.
Since I just published a pattern for a project bag using both patterned fabric as the lining and an embroidered design in the front, let’s use this one as an example.
I almost exclusively use floral motives in embroidery, simply because I love the look of them and I tend to gravitate towards floral fabrics as well.
Let’s take a look at this one: It features blossoms and leaves in a watercolour-like look.
When thinking floral embroidery, the first thought is flowers. However, I find using the main feature of the fabric as the image to embroider, can look more like a patch on the bag than a more subtle design element and I personally don’t really like that as much.
For me, this means going for the leaves instead.
When I’m “designing” a motive, I honestly have no idea what I’m doing.
I kind of just doodle whatever comes to mind and can be done using the very few embroidery stitches I know how to do, or can find a tutorial for.
A rule of thumb for me is keeping it simple.
It doesn’t need to be complex or large and making it too over the top can actually draw too much attention and take away from the overall piece.
Simple to me also means keeping the colour palette small.
Usually the sweet spot happenes to be 3-4 colours – 2-3 for the floral motive and 1 to add an accent (my accents are french knot stitches 90% of the time… they’re just so cute!)
Speaking of colour…
Colour
I find, that the secret of making a cohesive and well thought out end product, is to pay attention to colour.
For example, when I made this lavender-moon bag, I used a design that I found online.
I like to make sure the embroidery isn’t just “slapped on” but that the bag itself follows a theme of sorts.
Since I’m using plain, undyed fabric to embroider on, this means making sure the lining and hardware I use make sense with the embroidery design.
I’m also a big fan of using what you already have and thinking outside the box a bit.
So instead of going for the classic purple lavender with lucious green stalks, I utilised a brown zipper I already had on hand, along with some blue fabric for the lining and matched the colours of my embroidery piece accordingly.
To tie in the dark grey I chose for the moon into the overall design of the bag, I used some matching, dark grey sewing thread I happened to have on hand as well, for the top-stitching under the zipper.
Simply said: If you want a balanced overall piece, try to use a cohesive colour palette with the same colour re-occuring in different aspects of the bag (fabric, embroidery, hardware, seams).
If you want your design to especially pop, go for neutral fabrics, low to no contrast seams and minimal hardware.
For my example bag using the WIldflower Project Bag pattern, I wanted the cohesive look.
I chose the closest grey to the shade used in the print I had for the stalks.
Now the green proved quite difficult to choose, since the one’s in the fabric look like watercolour and use a ton of different shades. In the end, I settled on the closest thing I had in stash to represent both the greens and blues.
For the pink, I already used a light shade similar to the main pink in the print as my contrast fabric, so I chose a darker one instead to carry the pops of darker pink to the outside of the bag as well.
Formating And Placement
I can’t teach you how to draw… I can barely make a half decent line myself!
Luckily, that’s enough to make up your own, simple embroidery design though!
I personally use Procreate and draw it digitally, then convert it into a PDF and print it out in the size I need it to be for the bag pattern I’m making.
For the Wildflower Project Bag, this size is easy to figure out.
If your design roughly fills out a 6×4″ camvas – which is also a standard printing size on most printers as it’s the size of standard photo paper – it’ll be the perfect size for the bag!
(To place the embroidery on your finished bag in the same spot as the one shown in the pictures, place it about 5cm in from each the bottom and right side edge of your pattern piece.)
Of course, you can also draw it up on a piece of paper. To get the perfect size for your bag, cut or fold your piece of paper to the according “canvas” size.
If you’re making another bag or pouch, size and placement are just as simple.
If possible, just use a digital canvas the size of the piece of fabric you want to embroider on, after it’s been cut according to the pattern you’re using.
This allows you to see exactly how large your motive is going to be on your bag, and where it’ll be placed.
Placing the design in the centre of a simple, flat pouch is obviously a breeze.
If your bag is going to have a box-bottom, simple cut off the part that will be the bottom of your bag, from the bottom of your canvas and it’ll be the exact same process as for a flat pouch.
For designs, that are supposed to be off centre or somewhere along the edge of your bag, remember that there will be less space towards each edge of your fabric, once the bag is sewn because it’ll shrink by however wide your seam allowance is.
This means if you’re sewing with a 1cm seam allowance and want your motive 5cm from the side seam of your finished bag, the motive needs to be placed 6cm from that raw edge of the fabric.
(I usually add another 0,5-1cm just for good measure)
Embroidering
I like to cut my fabric according to whatever pattern I’m making, before embroidering but you can also stitch first and cut afterwards.
If you’re choosing to embroider on a pre-cut piece, you might want to add a few centimeters along the edges and double check the shape and size of it after you’re done stitching because the pulling and stretching in the hoop, potential pulling of the stitches and washing of the fabric (because let’s be honest: we know you should wash your fabric before using it because it might shrink and all that but do we truly always do that?), might mess with the shape and size.
Now it’s time to embroider!
But how do you get that design onto your fabric?
Especially onto a thick canvas, that you can’t see through to lay it ontop of your sketch and trace the lines?
Water soluble film!
This stuff is amazing! You simply trace your design on, put it on your fabric, stitch over it like it’s not there and when you’re done you just wash it away!
I’ve never embroidered much but since I discovered this magical substance I started doing it so much more and am even improving my embroidery skills!
Be careful though! You can’t use a pencil on this material – it just wont show but once the film dissolves into water the ink of whatever pen you used will be let loose onto your fabric, opening the potential to stain and ruin all your hard handiwork!
I haven’t found a perfect solution for that yet. Currently I’m using a brown gel pen whichs seems to wash out of the course canvas I mainly use to embroider on before it permanently stains it, but for things like white cotton I’m living dangerously with that method…
To attach the film to the fabric, using pins makes it a pain (literally…) to try and get it all set up tight and even and put into an embroidery hoop.
They can also catch your threads when stitching
Instead, I use some basic sewing thread and a long running stitch, sewing right around the motive. Of course this thread is cut and pulled out once your embroidery piece is finished.
When using an embroidery hoop, these stitches can be fully ignored and it doesn’t matter at all wether they’re in- or outside the hoop or squished somewhere along the edges.
Just treat them as if they don’t exist at all.
To make removing them easy, I make my stitches long enough to fit my scissors trough them.
When it’s time to pull them out, I cut the knots in the back and a few of the stitches and pull out the thread a few stitches at a time.
Go stitch by stitch for sensitive fabrics though!
And that’s it!
Simply wash off the film, let your piece dry and it’s ready to be sewn into a bag!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read may rambling
And special thanks if you’re letting the Wildflower Project be the pattern used for one of your precious creations!
May your days be filed with fun colours, blossoming inspiration and stunning stitches
Have a wonderful week!
Snowdrop