Tea Towel Drawstring Bag

A old and soft linen tea towel and a cross-stitched rosy doily, both costing just a few dollars each, have been re-purposed into a sweet little drawstring bag. 

A sweet bag made with re-purposed linens.

I had been wanting to sew a bag like this one ever since I came across Jude Van Heel's easy instructions in an issue of Grass Roots magazine (No. 244 Dec/Jan 2017/18). I found these beautiful linens quite a while ago and finally sewed them up in a project that took less than an hour to make. 💗

A vintage doily to decorate an old towel.

The colours in the rosy doily, the pinks and the browns and the greens, match in with the stripes of the tea towel so I think they go together quite well.  

Simple stitches sew the doily onto the tea towel.

Sewing the doily onto the tea towel was very easy. I used simple running stitches, sewing in and out of the little holes of the doily, all the way around until it was secure.  Then it was just a matter of sewing up one side and across the bottom of the folded tea towel to form the bag. A simple casing at the top, leaving room for a drawstring to run through it, and it was time for a ribbon. A lovely long blue satin ribbon, that came tied around a recent birthday gift, was perfect and so it was reused as the drawstring to finish off this sweet and simple project.

A satiny ribbon for a drawstring.

A tea towel drawstring bag like this could be used as a project bag, to hold a knitting or stitching project, or as an alternative to wrapping paper. Ours will be used to hold the gentle goat milk soaps we have collected to give to a special Grandma celebrating a birthday not far away.

What have you been making lately?

Meg

p.s.  You can visit Jude Van Heel, who lives in a sweet cottage in Tasmania, at Instagram:  @fairywrencottage

A Slice of Saturday Morning

It's been a slow and simple start to this beautiful and wintery Saturday morning. My boy and his Dad have gone off together for the weekend cricket match and now the hush of the house, so quiet and still, is only punctuated by the occasional birdsong outside. Home today  feels so very peaceful ...

Deep pink rose buds beginning to open.

Soon, I'll join our happily snoozing dog in the warmth of the Winter's sun.  He's found himself a spot and so will I. I'll move my old wicker chair into the sunlight flooding the back verandah. My old chair holds a little cross-stitched cushion, given to me long ago by one of my oldest and closest friends. She jokes it's the only one she's ever finished. Even more reason to treasure it so. 

A little cross-stitched cushion on my old wicker chair. 

Tiny birds waiting for their threads.

(First bird from Melissa Wastney.)

A little pile of good books from my local library. 

I'll stay happily there, legs outstretched in the sun, with a good book I borrowed from the library or perhaps some threads to stitch the two little birds I've traced onto tiny cotton bags. My time is my own ... until lunch break in the cricket when I take the picnic lunch  I packed this morning and stay until stumps. 

A pretty card filled with the pinks of cosmos blooms. 

(Painted by J.H. Song)

I turned another year older this week. I think I will adopt my beautiful Grandmother's eternal response to that childhood question, "How old are you?" She would always answer, most sincerely, "Twenty-one!" Somehow, I think my greying hair may just give me away! 

The deep pink rosebuds, from my love, are just beginning to unfurl their tightly held petals and sweet cards, one filled with the pinks of whispy cosmos, are birthday reminders of just how truly rich my life is. Rich in time, in the security of home, in having "enough" and in the adorable people I share it with. What a gift!

Have a lovely weekend.

Meg