All Ashore Ditty Bag

Barb aka Wolf Nanny has been an inspiration for me since I first found her blog and fabulous flicker photos. She is an incredibly talented writer and crafter and one of the best thrift hunters around. She started a new blog called the Purse Project and challenged anyone that's up it to join in and create purses according to a theme or material. It's not a competition, it's a fun way to stretch your imagination and skills. So this is my entry for the first challenge, which was to create a bag using a kitchen towel. I had purchased a vintage linen towel last year for just that purpose. Something always seemed to come up and I never got a chance to make that bag. If it weren't for this challenge it would probably still be sitting at the bottom of my vintage linen bin. The towel was a woven Irish linen that had seen better days. It had faded in places and was permanently stained in others. It had a compass rose on one half and a port side lantern on the other both framed in coils of 3 strand with signal flags on the borders. I decided to make a nautical style bag, but the fabric was not very strong so I used canvas for the bag making it with a big round bottom and using the the linen towel for outside pockets and trim on the inside pockets. I used red polypropylene"small stuff" for drawstrings on the inside and 3 strand cotton for the handles. I tied a stopper knot on the ends, seized, fringed , and then laced them through brass grommets. I embroidered over the faded compass rose in a simple satin stitch .