Thursday, May 20, 2010

Burlap Mail Bag with Embroidered Accents- Tutorial



I sort of just dreamed this idea up one day when staring at a pile of mail that I had no place for.

I had some left over burlap and thought- hey...why not? I had no plan, no measurements, and no clue how to embroider.

But, in case you want to make this cute bag, I will do my best to fill you in on how it came to be!

Tools-
24x12 piece of burlap
Iron on backing- to make material stiff
1/4 yard fabric
3 complementary colors of embroidery floss
Embroidery needle
Straight pins
Iron


Because my burlap was creased, I ironed it flat. Then I folded over the edges along the length of the burlap and ironed it to stay put. Those folded edges will be the sides of the bag. After all the ironing, I folded the entire piece in half to mark where I wanted my letters.

I cut a 4x8 square of fabric and a 4x8 square of the iron-on webbing and fused them together with the hot iron. Then I freehand cut out letters. I attached the letters with straight pins to the front of the bag.

With the straight pins in place, I did a simple back stitch to start my embroidery. Then, I just stitched around the edges of each letter. I didn't guess at how to stitch...I used this.


It is actually a children's book about embroidery. You can find similar info online!

Once all of the letters were sewn on, I took all of the pins out and re-threaded my needle with another color floss to do the side stitching.


I pinned the folded lengths of burlap together now that the letters were done, and stitched large X's up the side. I stitched in a dark blue first, skipping a space between X's to allow for a contrasting color.
Then I followed that by stitching lighter blue X's in the empty spaces and removed the pins.

I hated the top. It looked so raggedy where it was cut. So, I cut a length of fabric that would span the top. I pinned it so that it folded over the top and stitched it.

I attached ribbon to each corner at the top by poking the ribbon through both sides of burlap and knotting it in the back.

Done! Easy peasy. I actually did most of this watching Lost on the couch!

Please send me photos if you make this! I would love to post them here!!

Happy creating!!


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