Crafty Thursdays: Embroidered Book Bag & Giveaway

The lovely embroidered book bag above was make by Janet Bolin, author of the brand new this week mystery, Night of the Living Thread: A Threadville Mystery. She's our guest today to tell us how to make your own book bag with an embroidered pocket. AND she's giving away the bag and a signed paper copy of her book. To be entered, just comment below about why you would like to read her book. 

Here are the instructions for the bag:

Pattern for main piece:

1. Start with a piece of paper that will be the right size after the side and bottom seams are sewn and the top is hemmed. I used newsprint that was about half a tabloid page, and the resulting bag holds six paperbacks comfortably. 

2. Draw 2 sides of a small square at the bottom corners of the paper. Draw notches close to and equidistant from the interior corners.

Pattern for pocket:

1. Cut a piece of paper the same width as the bag and long enough for a pocket, leaving allowance for a seam at the bottom and a hem (an inch or so wide) at the top

Embroider:

1. For ease of placing into hoop, use a piece of fabric larger than your pocket pattern, making certain there will be several inches around hoop after fabric is hooped. You’ll cut the pocket to the size of the pattern piece later, after you finish the embroidery.

2. Mark where the center will be, close to the center of the piece you are about to embroider.

3. Choose a stabilizer that is at least as sturdy as your chosen fabric.

4. Place stabilizer and fabric, fabric on top, together in hoop with middle of pocket centered. Tighten hoop according to manufacturer’s instructions. Fabric should be taut, but not distorted.

5. Choose an embroidery design that will fit nicely between handles after you sew them on (see cutting out.) Insert hoop in your sewing or embroidery machine, and stitch.

Cut out pattern pieces:

1. Cut two of the main pieces.

2. Cut one pocket piece, keeping the embroidery centered. 

3. For handles, use purchased webbing. I didn’t have any and don’t live in Threadville, so making my own straps took less time than driving out to buy webbing. Cut the webbing twice as long as the longest part of the main pattern piece PLUS enough for handles, short for carrying by hand, longer for a shoulder bag. I made my straps short to carry in my hand. 

Construct bag:

1. Hem top of two main pieces of bag.

2. Hem top of pocket. 

3. With right sides together and sides of pocket lined up with sides of front of bag, seam bottom edge of pocket to front of bag. You’ll be looking at the back of your embroidery, and it will be upside down.

1. Flip pocket up so that your embroidered motif is on the outside and right side up. Baste short edges of pocket to sides of front of bag. 

2. Align one strap on front as in photo. Pin. Baste. Stitch lower parts of strap to bag, leaving handle free at top, and reinforcing the stitching at the top of the bag. Do the same with the back of the bag and the other strap.

6. Sew side seams right sides together and clean-finish raw edges. 

7.With right sides still together, stitch and clean-finish bottom seam—just the straight part; ignore those cut-out corners for now.

8. With the bag still inside out and right sides together, pinch side seam against bottom seam. Match notches. Stitch, trim, and clean-finish.

9. Turn bag right side out and press if necessary. Hint: never use a hot iron on machine embroidery. The thread may melt.

Now here's a little bit about Janet's book, Night of the Living Thread. Don't forget to enter to win the bag and a copy of the book by commenting below. 

Zombies, killer dresses, and ancient curses prove that Halloween in Threadville can be sew spooky…

It’s early October, and hordes of visitors have descended on the tiny, celebrated village of Threadville, Pennsylvania, to attend a Halloween crafts fair, a zombie retreat, and the wedding of Edna Battersby—dear friend to Willow Vanderling, owner of the chic machine embroidery boutique, In Stitches.

As a friendly prank for Edna’s wedding, Willow and the rest of the Threadville gang have fashioned an overly extravagant hoopskirt, complete with lights and music. But in a bizarre turn of events, the garish gown is implicated in a mysterious lakeside murder.

Now Willow must follow a trail of glow-in-the-dark thread, delve into ancient Egyptian curses, and creep through a haunted graveyard to unearth a killer—before she becomes the next fashion victim…

Janet Bolin learned to sew before she could thread a needle (she would still like someone else to thread needles for her...) She loves the magic of turning fabric and thread into clothing, toys, bags, and soft furnishings. Creating embroidery designs that her machine can stitch is another kind of magic. 

And so is writing stories. Combining her writing, sewing, and embroidering hobbies is a totally awesome experience, and resulted in the Threadville Mystery series. The main character, Willow, owns a machine embroidery shop in Threadville, Pennsylvania, a village of textile arts shops. But Willow does more than teach machine embroidery and sell the supplies that go with it. Aided and abetted by (and sometime hindered by) her dogs and by other shop owners in Threadville, Willow snoops around. She sometimes solves murders. The Threadville Mystery series includes DIRE THREADS, THREADED FOR TROUBLE, THREAD AND BURIED, and NIGHT OF THE LIVING THREAD. The fifth Threadville Mystery, SEVEN THREADLY SINS, will come out in June, 2015.

Like her character Willow, Janet Bolin pursues her hobbies and walks dogs on the shore of Lake Erie.

To see other Crafty Thursdays posts, click here.