MAKING A GARDEN EMBROIDERY BUCKET BAG- PART 1

Dear Michelle,

Remember the fabric you gave me before moving back to Hong Kong?

Since it was too thick and heavy to make garments, I thought it would be better to turn it into a bag. A drawstring bag or a bucket bag to be specific.

I took the inspiration from withwendy, a YouTuber, and created this.

A Garden Embroidery Bucket Bag.

I took my embroidered bucket bag to Venice beach for a test run.

I used the pattern from withwendy as a base. But since I wanted to focus on embroidery, I added lining (to hide the messy, embroidered inside) and created a two-toned bag to highlight the embroidery.

So this is what I came up with.

Lining: Two 16.5″x 15.75″ (with seams allowance)

Embroidery Sections: Two 16.5″x 8″ (with seams allowance)

Bottom Piece: 7.75″x16.5″(with seams allowance)

Drawstring: 1″x 3″

Shoulder Strap: 2″x however long you want it to be

Then I sketched the design on an Embroidery Section fabric and began my work while watching House M.D.

The design was a simple garden with a row of flowers lined up. Using thicker embroidery line made the process a lot easier. As a novice in embroidery, this took me roughly 12 hours to finish.

While I certainly could have done embroidery on both sides, I decided one side should be enough. Then, I could finally put them together with a sewing machine!

Love, Angel

P.S. Please watch out for Part two!