Check Meowout! A bag for mom on Mother’s Day

This ain’t your Grandma’s embroidery.  I found a new site called UrbanThreads [IG @urbanthreadsemb] and oh my goodness!  They have the most awesome stuff.  When I saw this cool guy, I just couldn’t pass him up.

NOTE:  A shout out to Urban Threads on their customer service.  I originally bought the wrong size of this cat for my embroidery machine.  I emailed them about my mistake and within a couple of hours, they switched it out.  Awesome!

I made this bag for my mom for Mother’s Day and this design is on both sides of the bag.  She’s down to just 4 cats now so I’m not sure if that’s still considered Crazy Cat Lady status or not.  I used the “Riviera” Pink Sands Beach Designs bag pattern and whipped this cutie up in an afternoon.  I’ll admit I had trouble with this pattern.  I’m sure all the problems were user error but I ended up not being able to have the outside pockets because the inner lining was too short.  So I just stitched them shut across the top – no biggie.  It seemed weird anyway to have the outer pocket opening only between the handles in the center yet the entire front was the whole pocket.  Seems you’d be digging around from side to side without much room to see what got down into the far corners.  The image below is not blurry…it’s your eyes.  😉

The thread on the sunglasses is a Mederia Poly Neon variegated and I chose the orange/yellow because of the other fabric I found in my stash.  Seriously, I did not buy the “floral” abstract print, solid orange, or gray all at the same time or from the same collection.  It literally was Fabric Carma that they all came together perfectly.

Having all the Pellon products for this project is the result of buying the bolt vs. just the amount needed at the time.  I’ve had the DecorBond and Peltex 70 for some time now and it’s always so nice to have what you need when you need it.  On the inside I added an embroidered monogram for mom from @TheItch2Stitch in the Natural Circle Sketch Monogram.  Due to the monogram, I had to alter the pockets on that side of the bag to be different from the pattern.  I made them a bit deeper to hold pens or reading glasses.

Zipper installation was easy by the instructions.  However I chose a sport zipper vs. just the regular one called for in the pattern.  I thought it would look cooler – like the cat. 😉
I really tried for a pattern match…believe me.  But the print was so wonky on the fabric, I’m grateful being “on-grain” wasn’t required.  Hey, good enough for government work, right?

Well, needless to say, SHE LOVED IT!!  She’s traveling from Tennessee to Wisconsin this coming weekend for a family wedding reception and she said she’s going to take it with her.  She was always good at hanging my school projects on the refrigerator and now she’s taking my bag to show off at a family event.  🙂   What a great mom!

Have you made any bags lately?  Link to them please!