the early bird catches the worm!

I made this drawstring bag a while ago for the lovely Lizbet, for her allotment seeds. I did forget to get a photo of the complete bag, showing its wonderful dragonfly lining and still intend to so at some point but thought I would share it anyway! For those who would like to have a go at making this bag I do produce it in kit form.

beady googly eyes fastened on breakfast

I've drunk the tea and started to make at this point

for the bird and floral side of the bag I have used recycled fabric for the applique

I drew the bird on with fabric pen and carved my block for the dragonfly lining

I did use predyed fabric for the lining but used my dragonfly block with fabric dye to block print my surface pattern on it

I used the machine to stitch the bird's body on but for it's feet and some of its details I hand embroidered with cotton. The worm was done by hand too, again with cotton thread.

the strip across the bottom was a lovely little piece of vintage fabric that I'd found, so special to me that I found it hard to use it but Lizbet is worth it. I used mismatched beads for the worms eyes for a suitably worried look

the flip side of the bag has more appliqued scraps of fabric with a bit of machine embroidery for added detail, I went for a hollyhock look