My First Free-Hand Embroidery Project

Back in November 2014, my husband and I spent a month in Hilton Head. While there, I picked up a small embroidery kit from the craft store. I loved it. I ordered another one from Amazon. And then a book. And then we traveled to South America and I stopped embroidering for a while. But, I'm picking it back up.

I bought a couple of grey flannel (felt?) clutch bags on sale at Joann Fabric ($5) and some fun, sparkly yarn. I figured I could make a couple of gifts for my nieces. Here's the one I managed to finish (note, this was meant to be a Christmas present, and is now a February birthday present.) Finishing projects is not my strong-suit.

 It's hard to see, but this stitch has a bit of weight to it. I first spelled her name using gray yarn using a backstitch. I then used my sparkly pink/purple yard and a tiny satin stitch to go over that, so the name is actually a bit raised off the bag. The flower is just a glued-on notion I also got on sale. It has a bit of bling which I love.

On the flip side, I was inspired by a design in my embroidery book.  If I weren't lazy, I'd get up and take a picture of the page in the book. (To the Google...scroll to bottom of this page for the idea.)

I honestly think it looks better in person. My photography and lighting skills are terrible. But you get the idea.

So - with all this stitching, the inside of the back was pretty ugly. I know that people who do embroidery and cross-stitch well probably have "back sides" that look good. I don't. I used some fusible interfacing to line the inside of the bag to cover the stitches inside the bag.

We'll slip in a gift card for some store-bought (EEK!) accessories, and there you go -- a pre-teen birthday gift!