Hand embroidered tote bag - Winter collection

Cotton tote bag for eco-friendly groceries, books, toys, hobbies and more!

The Winter Collection includes a lot of icy blue beauty! Designs include an applique poinsettia (cuetlaxōchitl) and a delicate snowflake, with more designs coming. (Hey, Pittsburgh is covered in snow right now, so what else can I do!?)

The embroidery is all hand created by myself, inspired by the world around me. The colors are vibrant and the images unique. Each design is imbued with a sense of action and movement.

I love tote bags myself, and I use them for all kinds of things. My tastes are always in the unusual, unexpected and, ideally, eco-friendly. The bag bases, although mass produced in China, were purchased from a resale auction, allowing me to use quality bags without creating additional waste/shipping/etc. I source my fabrics for the backing and the applique from a variety of places: my family’s old clothing, leftovers from my local arts center, odd lots from the creative reuse store, and de-stashers on Facebook. Giving these things a second life (or third!) life and keeping them out of landfills is my primary goal. I do buy thread new, unless I can also source it from de-stashers or creative reuse.

To make these fun carry-all bags, I create an embroidered image on a piece of fabric and then attach that fabric to the bag. (I call these patch bags.) On some of the bags, I will build a “crazy quilt” style image directly on the bag itself.

The basic tote bag measures 15”x16”, not including the handles.

Although the stitching is more secure than it may look, I would still recommend hand washing these. I have used a tiny amount of gentle laundry soap with room temp water, rinsing thoroughly and spreading out to air dry. I iron them before shipping and recommend using a tea towel or other cloth between the bag and the iron. Note a few designs do have sequins attached, and they have not melted during ironing, but I would suggest caution ironing directly on those designs.