Patchwork bag

This is my first foray into patchwork, and the bag is mainly hand stitched, with machine stitching around each square before turning right side out, plus on the handles.

The bag is made from 20 Japanese folded patchwork squares – each square starts out with a sandwich of two 12cm squares and a 12cm piece of wadding. Four 8cm squares are folded to make triangles, and added to each corner. Once the piece is securely stitched around the edge, it is turned and the centre square hand stitched in a running stitch.

The 20 squares are then joined by hand into a flat piece (as one of the photos), embellishments added (in this case – buttons), and then the final edges hand stitched to give the bag its shape.

One square is folded over to make a “fastening” with elastic and buttons.

The handles are made from black and red fabric strips, with iron on interfacing for extra body.

I’ve loved doing this, and just bought material to do another in turquoise shades, with butterfly and bee motifs.