I have lost my mind. But here I am, just having finished making monogrammed goody bags for dd’s third birthday party. Normally, I’m not that into crafty projects, but somehow the mental image of all those lettered bags sitting by the door at dd’s party just caught hold in my imagination.
I used a piece of blue velvet that I scavenged from my dad’s long-defunct upholstery business. Initially, it smelled a little dusty, but it machine washed like a dream. I printed out the large monogram letters in photoshop, then used the printouts as a template for bobbinwork embroidery. I used dressmakers carbon and a wheel to transfer the letters to the wrong side of the fabric. I had every intention of posting photos of the work-in-progress, but that sort of fell by the wayside when my camera found its way out of my sewing room and I did not feel like looking for it.
Bobbinwork is where you put embroidery floss or other decorative thread into the bobbin, regular thread on the top of the machine, and sew some sort of decorative pattern. It’s much easier than hand embroidery, and a heck of a lot cheaper than an embroidery machine. The font that I chose was very simple, with no serifs or fancy doodads on it, and it was easy to outline it on my machine. Then I flatlined each piece, so the lining would provide the seam finish as well. Then sewed the seams, did the casing and pulled a drawstring ribbon through. Well, actually, DH pulled the ribbons through. That was his contribution. It needed a tremendous amount of ribbon. The bags almost depleted my ribbon stash. Anyway, here is how they look.
Rolling in Cloth 