Sewing Project - Wine Bottle Bag - Japanese 1

 I found a couple small pieces of this Japanese print fabric by Schwartz Liebmen Textiles Inc. in my stash. I believe it to be 100% cotton.

I chose to make the front of the bag be a panel of the gorgeous fabric.  I found some red that my sister gave to supplement to the size I needed. I sewed a piece to the one side but that made it tricky to figure out where to place the the handles.

I placed a row of brown twill tape along the top edge aligned so it would be centered for the purple accent. That was stitched with the wavy decorative stitch then several lines down vertically to quilt the flannel to the outer layer.

Now I would not have a back seam. I did manage the handles correctly but totally forgot about it for the box corners.  I did have to undo the box corners on the outer and lining pieces and then iron the piece well so I would know what was the front.  It had to be done.

With the bottom seams and the box corners now in the right place I could do my 2 rows top stitching at the top of the bag.  

I hand stitched the purple crochet element at the top of panel on twill then added a red button in the center.

I chose red thread and an off white polycotton lining.