Sunday, September 25, 2016

New Extreme Embroidery Project

Not long ago, I bought a Yazzii bag. What is a Yazzii bag you might ask, well...at my last retreat, one of my friends had a small bag with her. She had it filled with her wool applique supplies. She had decorated the front of it with the cutest wool applique project. I really loved it and thought it would be very useful, and decided I "needed" one. I ordered one that was a bit larger than hers. This is what mine looked like when I got it. I put the ruler beside it so you could see how large it is.

(I know, I know...you are saying what's the big deal--why did she want one of these "ugly" bags.) Well, this is what my bag looks like now. I decided to draw a design and use my "extreme embroidery" to decorate the front of the bag.

I took the "ugly," undecorated bag with me on our trips to Colorado, Arkansas, and Lake of the Ozarks (which we did the last three weeks). I worked on my "extreme embroidery" for the cover while we were gone. It is REALLY a good thing I can stitch in the car. I finished it during the trip and appliquéd it to the bag when I got home. Here is how I did the finishing.

I blocked the piece and colored around the edges of the embroidery using my black Pentel Gel Roller for Fabric. (In this picture, you can see I have colored around three of the edges--not the top.)

I finished coloring the edges and cut it out.

I was a bit concerned about the middle of the embroidery piece being too loose, so I added MistyFuse the front of the bag. (Just enough so it would be covered by the embroidery.)

I also covered the back of the embroidery with MistyFuse and ironed it (MistyFuse to MistyFuse) to the bag. (Jane Dunnewold told us in a class I took from her that if you want something to stay fused when using MistyFuse put MistyFuse on BOTH pieces.) After fusing, I used a blanket stitch to attach the edges to the bag. I'm pleased with it.

I got my "large" Yazzii bag from Amazon here, but it is available from lots of places. The bags come in other sizes and colors. Mine is about three inches deep and has eight different pockets along with a deep compartment where I store balls of pearl cotton. I'm really happy with it. (I'm not affiliated with Amazon or Yazzii in any way. I'm just a happy customer.)

I'm off to visit my sister and head to another retreat (my first of three in October)! I'm hoping to have some retreat photos to share with you. Stay tuned.

5 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

You turned that bag into a snazzy yazzi. It is most exciting on the finished side. I was wondering how you embroidered on the quilted bag. Now I know. Nice job.

Unknown said...

It's gorgeous! I can't believe you got it finished in that length of time!

dana said...

I wondered why you hadn't posted in a while....you were traveling. Good for you. You have another beautiful piece of art to carry your goods in. Hope you get a lot accomplished at your retreats. Post plenty of pictures!

Robbie said...

How cool!!! I'll have to look this bag up! I use little bags I've made or small containers for my projects. I like this idea! You are so clever...amazing your hands held up!!!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE what you did to your bag! That looks great! It looks like it's about the size of a piece of paper, maybe a little narrower? The bag, I mean. What's inside it? You've been traveling a lot this year!