There's been some amazing hand lettering all over the place recently, and I keep finding lovely new examples on pinterest... so it was time to give it a go myself.
I decided that it needed to be on something practical, so that I didn't just end up throwing whatever I did away...
In the end, it's a very practical laundry bag, great to have when travelling.
It will even be useful.
You could easily follow the same idea but turn your hand lettering fabric into a cushion, which would be pretty cool.
What you will need:
Fabric of you choice
Lining fabric (I used an acetate lining)
Thread to match your outer fabric
Ribbon for the drawstring
Assorted embroidery threads
Pencil
Tracing paper (I used baking paper)
Graph or squared paper
Embroidery hoop & needles
The final size of my bag is 34cm wide by 31cm high (with 1cm seam allowance). The inside of the bag has a 3cm facing of the outer fabric.
For this size, you will need to cut 2 pieces of your outer fabric 36 x 36cm square. Cut 2 pieces of lining fabric 36cm wide by 33cm high.
Put this aside while your work out your design.
I was too busy doing and not photographing, when I was doing this stage. Start with some inspiration... maybe a quote, something inspirational, or in my case, just who and what the gift is for...
I found this a great tutorial at daily dishonesty which shows you just how to get started if you haven't done hand lettering before... this is where your pen, graph paper and pencil came in.
I drew my design directly onto my baking paper, using the grid paper as a guide.
Take care to think about the size of the design and how you want the placement to look on your end product.
Once you're happy with your design (and it's traced on baking paper or equivalent) position this onto what will be your front piece of fabric and secure it with a couple of pins or some taking stitches. then place it into your hoop.
Start with some running stitches to give you your outline, which also allows you to tear away the baking paper as you go (it get's a bit messy if you try to back stitch from the get-go).
Once you've completed your outline, and filled in the outlines, you can start filling in your letters...
You could fill the letters with satin stitch which will really suit the hand lettering, or do as I did and use a mix of satin stitch, chain stitch and so on, to fill up the letters, a bit like a sampler.
Once you're all done, it's time to make up the bag.
This is really straight forward if you have some basic sewing skills.
If you haven't done this before and don't know where to start, you could follow a detailed tutorial, like this one from the Purl Bee. The only difference on my version, is that I'm folding the top edges of the outer fabric to the inside of the bag to create a self facing.
The quick version is...
Place your front and back outer fabrics, right sides together and sew along the bottom edge, leaving a 1cm seam allowance.
Then, match up one of your lining fabric squares to one of the upper edges of your outer fabric and sew. Repeat the same with the other end. Press all the seams open.
This will create one long strip of fabric which runs lining / outer / outer / lining.
fold this in half so that the two end edges of the line up. Pin all the way around the open edges. Mark a section that you're not going to sew - 1 cm in from the seam where the lining and outer fabric meet, on the outer fabric piece, make the gap 3cm. Then, mark a gap somewhere on your lining piece, again where you're not going to sew, so that you can bag the bag out. Sew all other open edges. Mitre the corners. For a neat finish, tack back along the 3cm edges, which will become your drawstring opening. Turn your bag out and push out the corners and push the lining to the inside of the bag. The outer fabric facing should be 3cm deep. Press along the open edge and top stitch along the opening edge, 2cm in. Cut your ribbons to length and thread through the openings to create a drawstring. Close the hole in the lining...
And your done...
Labels: bag, DIY, DMC embroidery thread, easy project, embroidery, hand lettering, laundry bag, pattern using DMC embroidery thread, sew, tutorial
