Embroidery and appliqué - the creation of the teacup tote bag

In my last post I extolled the virtues of the humble cup of tea. Well this post is a slight extension of that one because tea has once again become the focus of this weeks' creative endeavours!

This time, it's in the form of an appliquéd and embroidered teacup and saucer motif on the front of a simple tote. Here it is displayed on a handy tree stump in the garden!

I found the pattern for the tote on the blog Skip to my Lou. The instructions are really clear and simple, with photographs for each stage. I'm so pleased with how it turned out! It's got a kind of flat bottom as you can see a bit better in this photo.

The whole appliqué patch is on a separate piece of fabric. I didn't know what I wanted to do with it until I'd finished and the piece I'd done it on was too small to turn into a bag.

The interior is grey lining fabric, which was a little tricky to sew as it's so slippy. It was an off-cut bought from a haberdashery shop I've just discovered right next to work - I have a feeling I'll be in there quite often from now on!

The main dotty fabric was left over from my shabby chic chairs.

I couldn't stop at making just one bag, so I made another one with some fabric I bought in Malaysia. This time I attached the straps slightly differently as I wanted to put bias binding around the top. I made some out of the pink lining fabric, but I realise now I missed the point of 'bias' tape because I didn't cut it on the bias! Oops!

Here's a view from the top to show off the lovely vibrant interior.

Although the 'not-so-bias' binding looks quite neat from the outside, it could do with looking a little better on the inside, but not bad for a first attempt.

I've really got the bug for making these now so I may just have to pop into the haberdashery shop again tomorrow to pick out some new fabrics!

I'm in a phase of enjoying embroidery at the moment. I've done a bit more work on this crazy patchwork piece which I blogged about here.

I love these little flowers, they look so pretty and give the fabric a bit of texture and interest.

I like experimenting with different embroidery stitches. With so many edges, this piece has been great for trying out new techniques.

These embroidered sheep are just a bunch of french knots with satin stitched heads. They're so fun, I'm looking forward to doing a few more :)

I'm going to get back to it now, see you next Sunday!

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Today I'm sharing this post on the following blogs: Handmade Harbour, Tatertots and Jello, Lamb Around and Be Different Act Normal.