The gratitude bag and free stitchery pattern...

What a lovely process making this new tote bag has been over the past week. It all began with an idea to remake and share one of my very old stitchery patterns from 2014 with you. From there, I decided to display the design on a pretty tea towel, cutting it up to create a simple tote bag.

But not content with 'just' a tote, I thought that adding some crochet edging around the top would definitely make the whole project a little more special. 

The tea towel was 18" x 28" and I needed to unpick the hems to press it out and give me more fabric to work with, and the upside of this was that I had enough extra to make the two handles. 

The stitchery itself was hand embroidered onto some pale pink linen that I bought way back when Cully May was a baby, and I'd only used it once before as a stitchery background because it's such a fine linen weave. But waste not want not! I am using everything on hand these days, which is really fun. 

I fused some Staflex 3045 interfacing behind the fabric after tracing the design onto the linen. After I'd finished the embroidery it was needle-turned in position on the tea towel fabric. I'd considered blanket stitch applique at first, but decided it was a much nicer finish with the needle-turn. 

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Here's the bag after I'd completed it as a simple tote...

A lovely tote with a good message...but I knew the crochet edging would definitely lift it. Around the top edge I blanket stitched with a very pale turquoise 4ply crochet cotton, similar to the colour in my tea towel fabric. 

Then I switched to this lovely rusty pink 8ply yarn for a row of double chain (chain in the US)...

...followed by a final row of trebles and double chain (double chains and chain US). The pattern is very simple - 3 trebles into one stitch, then 1 dc into each of the next two stitches. Just follow that to the end. 

I really love how this turned out, and it's perfect for our lazy Sunday country drives. I always felt weird taking a handbag on a country drive! 

The inside lining is an old Tilda print I bought back in 2009, which has been used in quite a few projects over the years as I originally had about four metres of it. 

The centre of the flowers are needle-turned and then I added a bundle of yellow double wrapped French knots to help them pop. Every colour used in this project, including the crochet yarn was chosen to blend with the colours in my tea towel. That's advice I have been giving for years here on the blog and in my patterns - choose your fabric first, and then choose your threads to match. 

I know there's heaps of lovely bag patterns around, and if I'd had more fabric I might have chosen to make one of them, but I wanted to keep things simple, using what I already had on hand so that I do not have to spend even a cent - and that is part of finding "joy in the ordinary" for me this year. 

And I am so grateful to have sewing fabrics, tea towels, yarn, threads and a sewing machine to make items with! 

Like the words on the stitchery, we need to keep an attitude of gratitude in our heart and mind every day. Most of us who sew have more than we need, and therefore don't need to spend money on sewing supplies. In 2024, I'm looking at what is right in front of me, and getting excited about using it to create lovely useful items for my home, myself, my family, and for gifts. 

Use the link below to download the free pattern

DOWNLOAD the "Attitude of Gratitude" hand embroidery pattern

This past week I have been deep cleaning the house again, baking up a storm for the family, and sorting through years of Elefantz files, but I'll share more about that in my next blog post. I have some very simple and inexpensive recipes for you to try as well, recipes my family love and refer to as comfort food. 

Do you have a specific comfort food?? Mine are Nana's roast dinners and her baked rice custard...how I miss them. No matter how hard I try, mine never tastes like hers. 

What have you made this week? Have you started a new project for 2024, or are you completing UFOs? Have you been baking? 

Bless each and every one of you in the week ahead, and may your hearts be at peace in your home as you take each day as the gift it is, and choose to live with joy in your ordinary lives. 

hugs,

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