Embroidered Stumpwork Bag I

Yesterday when visiting my mother I remembered a stumpwork wool bag that I had made for her several years ago. So I got it out of the drawer where it was lying unused and took a few pictures. This is from a class I took from Jan Kerton, an Australian embroidery teacher and proprietor of Windflower Embroidery. She doesn't get to the US very often, but it's definitely worthwhile taking a class from her if you are lucky enough to do so. She will be in the US next February, at Sewing at the Beach, an embroidery event sponsored by the Stranded Smockers and Stitchers of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. You can find the contact information about this on the SAGA Calendar site.

The bag is made of a wonderful wool blanketing and has a bunny sleeping in the raspberries. The raspberries are made of felt stuffed with polyester fiberfill, then covered with french knots and a few beads for sparkle. Jan's classes are not only instructive, but very entertaining. She has many stories to illustrate her points and to tell about how she comes up with ideas.

This is a closer image of the bunny on the other side. The bunny is made of a piece of beige wool, also stuffed with fiberfill and sewn onto the bag. The details are added just by stitching through the stuffed bunny before attaching to the pocket of the bag. The fluffy tail is Turkey Work, or Ghiordes Knot, trimmed and fluffed with an eyelash brush. I now keep an eyelash brush in my sewing supplies just for this use. The leaves are flystitch, which I particularly like, and the flowers and buds straight stitches with some subtle shading.

The other two pockets are much simpler embroidery. The inside has several pockets for keeping your items in order, and is topped with a drawstring closure.

The materials to make the bag are all very nice, very high quality. The bag itself is a lovely Australian wool blanketing, and the threads are mostly wool, some Appleton and some Kacoonda. Kacoonda is an Australian brand that's almost impossible to get in the US.

Jan no longer sells the kits for this bag, but she has many other items on her website, some of which I have made and will describe in other posts. Please visit it - she ships to the US!

Now to get mom to use the bag.