Botanica Linen Bag

Early in December I bought a remnant of linen, Botanica in Earth  from Ink and Spindle. The remnant was 70x40cm, the perfect size for a tote bag. 

Although it was a single pattern piece, I was able to cut it fairly neatly into two to form the sides of a bag.

This is really beautiful linen, heavy weight, designed for upholstery, woven in Belgium, dyed and printed in Melbourne. The design is so lovely it seemed a shame to embroider it.

Eventually I decided to use one colour, one thread, and to embroider just one plant on each side of the bag. The colour choice was easy. The waratah, grevillea and gum blossom all come in reds. I used perle 8 in a couple of shades of red. 

I began with the Waratah, whose petals screamed bullion knots. Some embroiderers avoid them, but I'm OK with them. It took  thought and couching to get the shapes, and the final few required me to find a  long upholstery needle to manage the 30-40 wraps to get the length.  I got the texture I was after.

While I didn't want to embroider all the leaves, I felt the centre of the bloom needed a focus, so I tried green in between the printed lines, leaving the outlines. This didn't work at all, so in the end I filled green over the lines. It's far from perfect but has the visual impact I wanted, while reinforcing my belief I should not try to 'colour in' the print. This was enough highlight for one side.

On the other side I worked the grevillea with pistol stitch - again, the plant dictated the stitch.

This was an easier task. By the time I finished I had decided to add a second touch to this side. 

French knots on the gum blossoms seemed a no-brainer.

I did, however, stop there.

The length of the front and back gave me a couple of inches to fold in for the base, otherwise the bag would have been inconveniently deep. I found a couple of pieces of linen blend in a colour close enough for the handles to avoid cutting into another metre piece of the lining. These are secured with three layers of stitching, so shouldn’t give way under most weights (nor if they get caught in the door of a moving vehicle or an escalator, which may be less of a good thing).

Construction was easy (not often I say that!) because the fabric was heavy, straight and ironed (not often I say that either!). I had some matching plain linen, lighter weight but still firm and straight, for the sides and lining. No special treatment needed. 

I am very pleased with this result..I think lots of people will like this one and it has potential for a charity auction that is on this year’s calendar.    

Yes, it's true the bird (which Canberra bird-watching friends tell me is a Channel-billed Cuckoo) on the grevillea side lost its head in the hem,  but his mate on the other side came off  triumphant.