Thursday, June 12, 2008

Easy Tote Bag Revamp or, My Stab at Punch Needle Embroidery (Literally)

I like the mindless Zen of doing needlepoint. However, I’m not a counted cross-stitch kind of gal. Stitching, counting, and stitching never appealed to me. If you’re out and about in the craft world, most of the
not overly trite or Granny nicer needlepoint kits available are counted cross-stitch. When I came across this fun little punch needle embroidery kit, I thought it would make a nice gift for someone who is hard to by for. I hadn’t done punch needle embroidery but it looked easy to pick up (it was), so I thought I’d give it a stab.


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I did. Several times, in fact.

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I poked my finger with the huge honking punch needle

repeatedly

several times.

The one or two times the needle actually drew blood, I was able to wash the blood out of my project. Of course, me being me, as I was finishing the last bit of the project that last big accidental jab of my finger left a big splotch of blood on the canvas that I couldn’t wash out. I couldn’t very well give away something that had a blood spot on it. Not just for esthetic reasons mind you. I’ve seen way too many TV shows where the bad guy unknowingly left DNA around that the good guys used to nail his sorry butt for the crime. (Not that I’m planning any crimes, but who knows what the future may bring?) This cute little design is now mine. (Sorry Debbie!)


So now what do I do with it?

I got a free canvas tote bag when Husband ran Race For The Cure. I liked that the messenger-like bag had a nifty interior cell phone pocket. Its over the shoulder design made it useful when I had to carry Blitzkrieg’s stuff with me on our jaunts around town or to the dog park. I’d use this cute Bag of Holding more often if it didn’t have a massive corporate logo printed on it. Ah ha! A use for my bloodied punch needle embroidery design. I sewed it over the logo and came up with this.

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You can do this too. If you don’t have a bloodied punch needle embroidery design you could use a hip piece of fabric, the design from the front of an old t-shirt, or just go at it with some fabric paint and draw your own design on a plain piece of fabric. If you don’t sew, you can attach your design to your reusable shopping bag with iron-on fusible web. This is an excellent way to revamp and reuse the free tote bags you get from festivals and summer events.

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4 comments:

Cynthia Blue said...

That is really pretty! Worth the blood...?

Gabriela said...

What a great idea! A great way to re-use perfectly good tote bags instead of sending them off to charity. Especially when they have good functionality. That is a really cute bag you made. I better find my coupon to the craft store.

Felicia said...

LOL yes, I've stabbed myself with a similar little widget when I tried needlefelting a while back.

Love the way it turned out! I found you from the Hallmark carnival :)

Lisa Nelsen-Woods said...

This post has been linked to http://www.hallmarkmagazine.com/Things_We_Make as part of the 9th Carnival of Green Crafts.

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