Emerald Green - ideas for bringing in a specific colour to your wardrobe - Part 6 : co-ordinating bag

Emerald Green - ideas for bringing in a specific colour to your wardrobe - Part 6 : co-ordinating bag

I used part of a woven polyester shower curtain to make this rucksack style drawstring bag.

It co-ordinates with the trainers (sneakers) rather than matching exactly, but I think it works quite well.

The main thing to remember with this style of bag is that you need the side seams on both sides and a lot more cord for the drawstrings than you expect!

Here's how all my emerald pieces are looking so far!

Personalised Backpack

I had a plain black rucksack, bought cheaply one back-to-school season. I decided I would like to embellish it a little.

I used three things

- a length of upholstery braid in olive and pink

- a length of ribbon in olive

- an embroidered patch of an elephant in olive

First I stitched the braid around the top of the backpack and the hanging loop. I used the remaining braid with the olive ribbon to make zipper pulls for the 2 top zippers and the zipper on the pocket.

Next I interfaced a scrap of black variegated quilting cotton and embroidered an elephant motif using my embroidery machine. It took a few goes to get it right.

I then finished the edges and turned them under to create a patch.

I then stitched this onto the rucksack. I decided to leave it open at the top so it's a little extra pocket.

I'm much happier with my personalised rucksack!

Travel accessories

When I bought the fabric I used here, I loved the colours and print. It wasn't very practical for garments though due to the stiffness and sheerness, but its worked well for travel accessories.

I have made a draw string bag, which can be carried rucksack style, a drawstring shoe bag (with a stitched divider down the centre) and and zipped bag for use inside a suitcase.

I had previously made 3 other zipped bags so its shaping up to be a nice collection now.

The shoe bag I made in February didn't draw up well as it went against the lines of the fabric. I remade it into a zipped bag and made a new shoe bag in the opposite orientation.