Black Fabric and Embroidery Create a Striking Bag
by admin — 21 Comments » Lazies, Last week we saw some scrumptious Take Along Bags (LGD106) by Gail. This week, we are featuring some made by her sister Donna. More Lazy Sisters – I love it! I must mention that neither of my sisters are Lazy and I’m not at all happy about that. At least Mom is Lazy. Atta girl Mom. Back to our Lazy feature. Donna’s well-thought-out embroidery designs set against the black fabric creates a striking project.
I wish one of these was for me! No pressure Donna.
Here’s Donna
While I was graced with my sister’s fantastic sewing machine and fun threads, I started sewing little signature blocks with all my nieces, sister-in-law’s, mother-in-laws and some of my friend’s names on them and tucked them away.
Threads and Buttons and Fabric, oh my!
I matched fabric and thread and chipped away at the task of finding fun fabrics to match, and fun buttons to accent.
Look at these fabulous button ends, all lined up and ready for fun.
Little by Little
I secretly worked on these little projects last spring, some in the summer, a bit in the fall and then a mad rush in December. A little H1N1 vacation set me back quite a bit but with my sister’s gentle encouragement, I picked away, 20 minutes at a time and finished all my little bags for Christmas and birthday gifts for family and friends.
I love how Donna coordinated the embroidered name and a decorative design.
Better by the Dozen
In all, I made 12, I think. They were so fun to make and even better to give. The theme of the bags I made were black on the outside, with fun zipper panels, and fun, bright fabrics on the inside.
I chose to make them black so that the bright threads in the their “names” would pop.
The black fabric is a perfect base to showcase these fun embroidery designs.
Follow along with Donna at her blog here. I love her tag line “Ramblings of a Queen without a country”. Donna sounds like my kinda gal, um, Girl. Thanks Donna for sharing your beautiful creations with us.
You can read more about the Take Along Bags pattern here.
If this tale of two sisters sounds familiar, it should. We featured Regina and Sue, two long-distance Lazies, here. Do you share your sewing passion and creations with family or friends? Leave a comment and tell us about your long-distance Lazy efforts and a bit about your creative relationship.
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Enjoy!
Joan
Joan’s Sewing Group | Pinterest
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Gawd are these CUTE….I need to runoff and get that pattern……forgot to put a zippered pocket in one of my cute handbags…..so this would be a perfect thing to slip into the bottom of the purse…….OH SO CUTE….Laura in Asheville
DARLING!! What a GREAT idea!
OH MY GOSH!! those are totally beautiful!!! what a wonderful idea and thing to do!
I made me one right after your last post on this pattern and I love this bag. I keep my sock knitting in it. Perfect size and shape and love the pockets in it.
Great job ladies!!
Wonderful bags, the black with the embroidery just sings! Well I do share my bags across country, most of my extended family still lives in Cali. Everytime one of my Aunties sees a new bag for my Mom they have to have one to. I can not count how many Wonder Wallets are scattered across the country from me. Thanks so much for sharing. I have not tried this pattern but think I will make something cute for my upcoming class at the MidAtlantic Quilt show to hold all the accessories. Maybe it will shake the dust off my embroidery machine LOL
Penny in Chesapeake
I loved my sister black themed style for all these bags. The fabric she used was a bit heavier than quilters cotton. I think it was twill, but it gave the bags a little more firmness and I think I’ll look for some black twill to make a few of these for my friends. I love how all the beautiful colors just flow and the font she used was so curvy and friendly.
Besides her sewing, she is a great curler, a master scrapbooker, a dynomyte wedding planner, a great cabbage roll maker, and a perfect sister. Great Job Donna!!
Hi Gail, Donna’s a quilter and a curler? Oh, my hero! I’m completely engrossed in the Olympic Curling. Thank you to you both for sharing your beautiful creations with us. Hugs, Joan
How cute! I especially love the font used for embroidering the names. Would Donna be willing to share the font she used? Thanks, Linda
My sister Donna used a font from fancyfontsembroidery.com. Actually I believe it was just the initial she used from them, and then she added the rest of the letters in the name just using her standard fonts in her embroidery software. We both love the fancyfonts embroidery.
These bags are darling, just as functional as they are gorgeous. Gail is an amazing inspiration and so now is her sister Donna. Great to see them both “published”!
Congratulations Maritime Canada girls,
Kathy
wow…two talented Maritime ladies …”lazy” girls indeed!
Wow! Way to go Donna. Gail and Donna are a talented pair of sisters. I love the embroidered names – very nice touch. What lovely gifts.
Well, thank goodness Gail answered the font question, because I would have to open up a computer program to find the name of it.
I am so honored to be “profiled” on this blog site… but I am not a great sewer like all the rest of you. I certainly have sewed all my life (taught by my sister), and I am very good at following a pattern. But, I sort of have a lot of half finished projects, and I also tend to THROW OUT projects that just don’t work well!!!! As far as being a creative and motivated sewer… I get all that from my sister. After I made my first “Take a long bag” (Vanessa), I decided to make some for the rest of my family for Xmas. After sewing all the names on the fabric… I sort of ran out of steam.
They sat for like 4 months… and it was Gail who encouraged me to start buying the linings (which are funky and wild) to be a direct contrast to the black. We bought all the buttons at one time.. and then I started matching the fabric to the thread colors…
It was my sisters great work ethic and attitude that kept me on task… (and we live 6 hours apart!!)so I could get all of them done by the Xmas parcel sending deadline! I filled each bag with different items that matched the outside color… its was totally fun and a wonderful gift to give!
Thanks again for all the kinds words… I am thrilled that everyone loves them as much as I do!!!
These bags are just the cutest things I have seen in a long time!! I hope I can get some made for those I love.. I did find the font it’s Monogram Set #27 “Flip Flops” .. thanks so much for sharing that website. I didnt know of it and it’s got some great fonts! Thanks again to you Lazies keep up the Great Work !!!
Wonderful embroidery , amazing bags! I love it!
Wow Donna, your post could have been written by me about my sister! LOL! She too is sort of my hero and has taught me so many things and also gifted me with so many treasures. We are also 6 hours apart! I have so many fond memories of her helping me learn how to sew and also so many other things. Everytime we visit we bring our supplie and spend hour crafting together. We always have fun no matter what we are doing. We always share our sewing projects, but we also share our love of scrapbooking, jewelry making, and cake decorating.
Let’s hear it for super sisters!!!
I absolutely LOVE your bags, bright colors against black is always striking, and I agree with your sis Gail that the black twill gave your bags a nice weight, they seem to stand up nice and crisply. The feminine fonts with the embroidery is a nice touch. Keep on crafting, Gail is right when she said “Great Job”! I can’t wait to see what else you come up with on your blog, which I now have in my faves folder :-).
I just had a customer email me about the font used to see if it was from my website (and yes it is:), and as I was reading the comments here, I was suprised to see that the two ladies mentioned (Gail and Donna) are from the Maritimes as well!! Now I am curious where exactly in the Maritimes? I am just ousite of Halifax! Small world!..lol…
Paula:)
Ps- I am honored that my font design was used and showcased here! How wonderful!!
Not only is Donna super talented but she’s super nice, and thoughtful, and kind, and sweet and …. trust me I could go on and on and on!
This is a little tidbit of info about how wonderful she really is…the Vanessa bag was for a young “under” priviledged mother in our little village who was about to give birth. Donna filled the beautiful bag with TONS of fun “orange” things to match the stitching! The expecting mother was beyond thrilled…wouldn’t anybody be though really?!?
There is so much talent in that family! Luckily I’m a friend so I’m the lucky recipient of some of that talent! (Have you seen their oat bags…WOW!) Great feature…the “lazy sistas” sure are deserving!!!!
Hi Joan, Those bags are adorable. I have made several for myself and friends. One year I made those bags in all batiks for my friends for the retreat held at my home in AR. They loved them. One girl uses hers for sewing supplies which she carries to retreats and classes. I use mine for makeup as I travel a lot. When it gets soiled, i just wash it by hand and let it air dry. They have a dozen uses. You are so clever. Thanks for sharing.
Mary Sue
Beautiful bags!
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Neat way to personalize and add extra flair to purses, bags, jackets, etcetera. 🙂