Hanka Robertson’s Drawstring Purse from Piecework magazine.

I wanted to stitch this as soon as I saw it in the Autumn 2025 Piecework magazine. Hanka Robertson has adapted old costumes and Slavic pattern magazines to come up with this drawstring purse.  I loved the shape, the primary colours and the association with folk embroidery. I didn’t want to interrupt my run of embroidered craft bags, but I did want embroidered this.

I’m not a huge fan of Aida, but could see immediately that this one would look good stitched on it, although the instructions specified 28 count linen. I thought I had a supply of Aida. I was wrong. I needed more DMC stranded thread for the Kasia Jacquot bags, so visited Create in Stitch for the thread and also bought two packs of Aida - one cream, one black - all they had. 

As a break from the Jacquot embroidery, I marked up the cream Aida for the Robertson design.

It sat for a bit before I took a break from the Jacquot bags, mounted the Aida in a hoop and got to work. I began with the red and worked mostly half-cross stitches, enough outlines to keep me correctly oriented and able to repeat motifs.

It was surprisingly slow work. There are a lot of stitches in a relatively small space. Our recent heatwave gave me the indoor hours needed to finish the colourwork.

However, the pattern demanded every segment be outlined in black perle 12,  and that took considerable time.

Another 47C day provided the opportunity. I spent the best part of the day outlining the centre pattern. The following day, a mere 40C, I spent reading and only completed the inner border outline in the evening while listening to the television.

That was probably a mistake. It is surprisingly difficult to accurately stitch an outline on Aida, harder, I suspect, than on linen. The structure of Aida makes it easy to miss the hole and split the fabric. There is a section of the border where I’ve missed the hole several times over a couple of inches - no doubt checking the screen rather than the embroidery. I’m not planning on correcting it. 

So here’s the complete block finished . The outlining was worth the effort, pushing the pattern forward.

That left two rows of cross stitch for the ribbon casing and one for the top edge - all requiring an outline below and above.  Very little of this was achievable in the hoop, so hand- holding required. 

I found a suitable lining fabric and cut it to size before washing and blocking the embroidery. I was hoping the process would soften the Aida, but I was disappointed. 

 Since the ribbon casing needed to be stitched to the backing in order to form the casing, it seemed more sensible to stitch the black outline on the machine. That required a slow and steady pace. The result was not as neat as hand-stitching as can be seen here, but was, I  think, the right decision. 

The casing also required two insertion points for the ribbon, one on either side.

I machined the lining into  a bag, inserted it and stitched the 

top edge to the Aida on the inside.

I used the whole piece of Aida, making the bag more rectangular rather the one in Piecework. I think that's OK. I do want the bag to be useful, Perhaps I should bave centred it vertically, but it's not critical.

While the pattern used red ribbon for the cord,  I thought it called for a twisted cord. I made two, with a strand of each of the colours. 

Some red tassels from a workshop came in handy.  The cords could be a heavier, but I am not replacing them.

The stiffness of the Aida does not really suit a drawstring. It won't tighten more than in the photo. It is a good, strong bag, and will, I'm sure, find it's purpose in life and spread cheer. I'm happy to have created it.