A bag for Doreen...

Before Christmas I made a bag for a lovely lady called Doreen, a family friend I have known since I was a little girl.  Doreen is my friend's Nan, I used to go to her house after school and loved my visits there.

Now though, she has dementia and I was asked to make her a bag with her name on so that when she goes to her Day Centre, she can easily identify her bag when she leaves. I developed an odd thing for dyeing woollen blankets as a result of a workshop I did with Nicki Trench a while back.  Nicki is a craft writer and a lovely lady, her blog can be found here:  http://nickitrench.blogspot.com/

For Doreen's bag, I used a wool blanket I had dyed light blue and selected fabrics for the lettering that would stand out.  I used some Dena Designs fabric that contained the light blue but was primarily red.  I applique lettering on most of the things I make, I think it's become my little signature on the things I make, I love to personalise things.  Before I cut the letters from fabric, I use iron on vilene to strengthen the letters and avoid fraying.  I also prepared some knitted flowers and selected some buttons for the centres.  The lining fabric is the same as I used for the handles.

This is the result!