Marta bag

 

I chose Marta as my next bag in this series of Kasia Jacquot panels on Semco craft bags, partly because I was looking forward to working on the cheery green fabric, and partly because I wanted the contrast of the black bag. I had worked the design before but couldn’t remember the palette I had used, and didn’t look it up.

I used the Kasia colour palette as a basis, but substituted a brighter pink and a darker purple. I had both handy and thought I’d just go a bit brighter.

The colours contrast rather than blend. It has no match that I know of in the real world, but I quite like my cheery fantasy flowers.

Kasia’s example gives the leaves a small brown vein where they join the stem. I intended to put it in but forgot to go back and add it. I think it’s OK as it is.

I’m pleased with the result. pink is not usually my thing, but I find this bold and uplifting.

I ironed it when the embroidery was finished, turned under a hem, debating in my head whether to embroider the hem as well as stitch it. I inclined to embroider it. 

That was firmed up after I’d machined it on, and got a couple of inches out of line. I unpicked the couple of inches, embroidered it down and continued all the way around.

Again, I’m pleased with it and have hung it with the others.

My Kasia Jacquot bag stash

The Aurora bag was the seventh I have completed from the Kasia Jacquot printed panels I accumulated, either as kits or simple panels, paired with Semco craft bags purchased from Spotlight. (Ania, Veronka2, Eve, Marta, Stanley Veronka1). I have given two away, and will no doubt do the same with the remainder. At the moment one of them holds my remaining Kasia Jacquot purchases awaiting attention (photo below),

I don't often get the iron out, so while I had it out to iron the Aurora bag I ironed the remaining panels and their designated bags, spreading them out on the table to dry.

I had to spray them with water in addition to using the steam iron in order to get out the creases. 

These are the 8 waiting to be stitched and constructed. The green one is in a hoop waiting to be embroidered. It marks half-way. 

Now they are dry, they are rolled and stashed in a bag, along with a couple of Stick and Stitch kits.

What, you will ask, is she going to do with 15 bags? A question to which I don’t have a definite answer. I will give them away, either as gifts, or to a cause. I wasn’t motivated by a target market. I love the panels - the designs, colours, creativity, and I love stitching them. I also think bags are useful and might as well be attractive.  Who wouldn't want one?

Oh, and if the unlikely happens, and I get bored with stitching these, I still have enough Ink and Spindle fabric for 20 more tote bags cut out ready to stitch. 

Better get on with it.

Aurora Bag

I got going on the Aurora embroidery almost as soon as I finished Ania. When you're on a good thing.... 

I worked the outside border and thick brown stems first, going along with the stitch suggestion of herringbone. I had some variegated thread - purple through to brown - which I used on the border, reverting to plain brown for the stems.

One example for this design shows the leaves stitched in a light green thread over both underneath colours. I liked the idea and tried it. 

I'm pleased with the result. I used two different light green threads, the limey one sparingly.

Again, I rejoice in the way the colours and use of 6 strands give dimension to the piece and make stitching so interesting and rewarding.

 I ironed and pinned it to the chosen bag as soon as it was finished. deciding to stay with the whole piece rather than reduce it. The uneven shape and corner decoration seemed to demand space.

 

I'm a bit inclined to add a herringbone border around the edge of the panel, but for now I'm pressing on with another panel and bag. I have another Aurora panel to play with, so might work it out between the two resulting bags.

Bishop Bag Update.

 In my last post I had managed to gather, in addition to the original embroidered Bishop bag, 4 printed cushions and 9 printed bags, all with the names of the 14 Australian female bishops plus Sarah of Canterbury. I sent one of the first printed bags to a friend in Sydney who was a founding member of the Movement for the Ordination of Women.

 I wasn’t quite satisfied. I had, I thought, learned enough from the process to have one more go at improving the printed bags. I returned to the VistaPrint template I had already developed. The advantage of using that template was that I knew the layout worked. The disadvantage was that I couldn’t undo the remove background command, which would give me back the original white background. To do that I had to start again and reload photos. Before I did that, I thought I’d try changing the colour of the background.

I settled for lilac.

I placed the order, for 6 bags, on 19 December, using my daughter’s suburban address with instructions to leave in a safe place. This was fortuitous.All buzzers at our apartment address are now out of order and can’t be repaired until  mid-January. The bags arrived today  - 11 days from Guangzhou. This is faster than the Christmas cards I received today from NSW! 

Again, the quality is excellent. The print worked much better on the lighter colour. There were 3 names, one date and one city that needed me to reinforce the print with an archival pen. These are words I embroidered using the lighter end of variegated thread. It was not difficult to fix, and the archival pen took well to the fabric.

The job is done. I now have 14 bags and 4 cushions that I'm happy for others to have. I’m definitely finished for now, but if more are required, a simple reorder from this last template will work!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I’m very satisfied with that! ✔️ Thanks to all those who've helped and advised.

        

Bishops Bag spinoffs

As I indicated, I have been working on creating printed merchandise from the original bag I embroidered with the names of the 13 female Anglican bishops in Australia, along with the newly appointed Sarah, Archbishop of Canterbury.

My first effort involved photographing each side, then using the template for the fully customisable tote bag on the VistaPrint website, to create an order for a printed version of the bag. I ordered three. Most VistaPrint products are printed in Melbourne, but, from past experience, two-sided bags are printed in China. 

 Meanwhile, I had an unexpected email from Snapfish, a service I haven’t used for anything other than cards since 2017, largely because I couldn’t retrieve and edit earlier books I had made with them. Other services have more flexible formats and archiving options. Their email suggested unless I placed an order with them, the records of my projects on their website would be deleted. I thought it might be worth ordering something to see if my earlier projects could be retrieved. Like most other Australian print sites, they don’t have pages that can be printed on both sides.

I spent the best part of a day, rephotographing the bag, focusing on individual faces, arranging them in a Word document, converting that to a jpeg file and trying to fit the result on a Snapfish bag template. It was tedious and difficult. The resulting portrait file (left) was the wrong shape, so I redid it in landscape. Then the resolution was not high enough. 

I eventually got there. Without confidence, I ordered a library bag and a tote bag - both only available in calico.  I also created a cushion, which can be printed on coloured fabric.

The plus side of  the Snapfish orders was speed and delivery through Australia Post. The library bag was delivered from Glenn Innes in NSW within 5 days. The other bag and cushion, from Victoria,  in seven. The Vistaprint one took 13 days to come from China and was delivered by courier with less than perfect communication and unfathomable redirect options, causing me to cancel a lunch commitment I was looking forward to. Then it was not delivered in the notification window - and I could have gone to lunch. 😞

 Predictably, the two one-sided bags are disappointing. The small size of the available print area means names are hard to read and, in some cases, cut-off. I’ve filled in a few letters with fabric pencils, but it’s useable only as a replacement for plastic supermarket carrybags. The calico colour does nothing for the image.

The cushion, however works well. I need to adjust one face, but otherwise it’s good. The difference is both in the fabric and the size. The fabric is heavier, and the larger size means the print is larger and clearer. 

The name on the second face from the left on the bottom row is unclear. I’ve re-edited it and will amend the template copy. I think there may be people who like the cushion.

The prize, however, goes to the bags printed on both sides in Guangzhou. The print is strong, the words clear and the bags hardy. The purple background works for me. I'm tempted to order more, on spec, in case there are women, or men, who have been involved in the long fight for women’s ordination, who would like one.

It's good to have lived to see this.

Deo Gratias. 🙏

Female Bishops Tote Bag

Last month (3 October 2025) Sarah Mullaly was named Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to hold the office. The Anglican community has approximately 85 million members. About two thirds of the member churches recognise female priests. Australia has ordained 13 female bishops.

I still had 2 metres of the limited run Faces fabric produced by Tessuti Fabrics in Sydney.  This seemed the appropriate time to use some of that to mark the achievement of these women and all those who have worked so hard over decades to arrive at this point.

I cut out a bag and stitched it together, making it larger than usual to get 14 full faces, before mounting it in a hoop and digging out most of the purple cotton thread I had. I then used Quaker stitch to embroider the first name of each bishop, the year she was appointed, and the diocese in which that occurred.

To the 13 Australian names  I added that of the new Archbishop of Canterbury- a milestone for the Anglican communion.

Embroidering names is relatively slow work. The text can't be very large and it is hard to keep some letters clear, particularly e, the most frequently used in English! 

When I finished the names, it looked unremarkable. I discussed ideas with family and some of the World Embroidery Study Group, which I convene for the Embroiderers' Guild. They agreed I should add mitres and croziers. 

I had found some purple batik in my stash that I was tempted to use as lining. The World Embroidery Study Group made me promise to use plain purple. Spotlight had a choice of several and I settled for a dark purple quilting cotton. I also bought wadding. I was concerned that the Face fabric would not stand up to the wear and tear a bag gets. I should, in fact, have added wadding or interfacing before embroidering. 

I added the wadding to the lining before constructing the inner bag. This made for tricky corners and a bit of ironing. I had thought I might quilt around the faces, but, after one section, gave it up. Instead I decided to hand stitch the mitres and croziers into the wadding.

The design did not allow me to add mitres directly to each head, so I created a row running horizontally across the top, using a variety of gold threads. I fitted 4 mitres on one side of the bag, two on the other side. The shapes are far from precise, being fitted in between black lines, using thread that is stiff and prone to shredding.

I began the croziers using gimp, but quickly decided these were too thin, so worked herringbone stitch over them in a variety of metallic threads. I kept adding them in spaces between the faces until each side looked balanced and a bit eye catching.

In case there was any remaining ambiguity, I added a caption on one side.

As with many of my projects, I think it's a bit crazy. Who knows who, if anyone, will want this bag. Perhaps one of the bishops might use it to carry their vestments: it's just about big enough! Or one of the women who fought for years for the ordination of women might find a use. 

While this is definitely a one-off embroidery, I have once again experimented with using photographs of the embroidery to create printed bags. I photographed both sides several times until I had a clear photo and uploaded photos of both the front and back to the VistaPrint website. It took me longer to add a small print caption to each side, one acknowledging Tessuti, the creator of the Faces fabric, and the other claiming ownership. 

This is what it looks like in pre-print template. I have ordered 3 to be printed as a test. If it works, this will be a sturdy, normal size, useful, affordable tote that a few people might want. I'll see when they arrive in a few weeks time.

It's been another experiment, learning as I go, winging it. I've come to think the original faces might be too dominant. Maybe the names alone would have been enough. The advantage is the image of women, en masse, facing the same way, in your face.

A male friend from my Sydney University Evangelical Union days in the late 1960s recently reminded me of a meeting of EU women I convened, at the request of women members, in, I think, 1967, to discuss  the ordination of women. Our guest was Deaconess Mary Andrews, the head of the Church of England's Deaconess House. Her message was basically: don't waste your time, it will never happen. It wasn't, we felt, a position of belief, but of pragmatism, and pretty depressing.

Fortunately, some of those present ignored the advice. For my part, the battle was channelled into education rather than the church. More than half a century on, we have made some progress, in both education and the church. A very ordinary tote bag is my way of marking it.

Another gift bag binge

In January I bought some remnants of Japanese fabric from KimoYes during a sale. In the last couple of  years my gift bag making has concentrated on cotton fabric, mostly with a Christmas theme. It's a long time since I added either Japanese or sari fabrics, both of which used to be a regular part of my gift bag making.

Last week, after a bit of a cleanup in my sewing room, I retrieved the remnants, cut them out and on Saturday I ironed, then machined them into 21 bags of varying sizes, mostly rather larger than A4 size.

Before I went to bed, I got out my container of ribbons and assigned an appropriate drawstring to each of them. Some were a bit rough and ready - a pair of shoestrings, several pieces of florist's ribbon and a pyjama cord amongst them. I really enjoy this process of reuse and appropriation.

One I used was a braid I remember from my childhood. My mother had a lot of it in a couple of colours. I think the other one was either yellow or green. I last used it, I think, on clothes for either my own children, or my grandchildren. There is still about 8" left after I added it as a draw cord for one of these bags.

On Sunday I added the cords, knotting the ends together where there was a double drawstring. Then began the hunt for things to act as stoppers on the single drawstrings, to ensure the cords don't retreat into the gusset. The shape of each piece of fabric determines whether it has a double or single drawstring. If the fabric folds with two side-seams it is easy to leave the top gusset with an opening on either side - so two drawstrings pulling in opposite directions. If the fabric folds with only one side seam it only has one drawstring.

The collection here shows a knotted pyjama cord, a ribbon ended with cowry shells, a single nylon(top left to right) ribbon ended with a wired flower from a hat. Bottom left to right is a dressing gown cord, shoelaces and a ribbon ended with a wooden bead. 

Here we have the 1950s braid, a simple double narrow black ribbon and a single black ribbon ended with a couple of gum nuts painted with gold glitter paint.

 

While I try to stick to natural fibres for most of my stitching and clothing, I am hugely admiring of Japanese fabric, most of which is synthetic. The colours and designs are fabulous, as is texture and polish. 

The average material cost of each bag is $3.40.     I expect they will be used several times over. Making them gives me great pleasure on many fronts.

 I think I'll look at the pile a bit longer before putting them away ready for when I need to wrap a present.