Huck Bag

Way back in May I posted a blog about Huckaback, or Swedish embroidery, triggered by a pattern in the Spring issue of the Canadian magazine, A Needle Pulling Thread  for a placemat and napkin set called Oh Caroline by Christine Allan of Lancaster, Ontario. Ever since I have been thinking about how to use the pattern for a bag. 


I managed to find some coloured huckaback at Willow Fabrics in the UK and bought some in navy, light blue and gold. Last week I cut enough of the gold to make a round bag and chose some rich reddy-brown perle threads from my stash - only to discover I needed, of course, really long threads to run the whole length of the bag fabric, and my threads were all cut to 18 inch lengths. So, not to be defeated, I slipped up to Hetty's Patch to see what perle they had.

It wasn't a lot, and none of them were deep colours as I had envisaged - but there were some that blended with the gold. They were all variegated, so a bit of an adventure. 


On the advice of the team at Hetty's Patch, I went for one almost white, to provide a bit of contrast. It was good advice.



It is a very elegant pattern. It flows along, once you get the hang of it, curving and moving at a great pace. It takes a bit of concentration - but not so much it needs all your attention.

I decided to use some Japanese obi cotton that I have in quantity to line it. The colours blend quite well even though it has a striking dark grey in the pattern.







I used some of the obi figures to form ends for the ties.


All in all, a useful experiment. I'd like to try a shopping bag now, with the pattern all over one side, perhaps in darker thread.