A Variation on a Japanese Rice Sack: Rock Gardens ~ A DIY Embroidered Bag

Description

When I was a young girl, my family would often go to Colorado to visit my grandmother. She lived in a beautiful little town in the Rocky Mountains. Her garden was spectacular. There were great boulders covered in lichen of all sizes. She planted clusters of Colorado Columbine, Johnny Jump-Ups, Pansies, Lily of the Valley and countless other types of flowers, in and around those enormous rocks. With my grandmother’s garden in mind, I began designing this drawstring bag. While researching drawstring bags I came upon a YouTube Video on how to make a Japanese Rice Bag. The basic design of a Japanese Rice Bag is five squares, which you then sew together. Add a drawstring and voila!

Each wool shape represents its own little rock garden individually, a tiny oasis amidst the green linen background, but also is part of a larger piece – the square panel and the whole bag. It flows from the wilder looking parts, to the obviously more manicured, and through it all the lighter green linen, curved shape, representing uneven ground meanders throughout. I will walk you through the entire process of making this bag from start to finish. I created YouTube videos for this project on my YouTube Channel: Ariane Zurcher ~ On the Other Hand. Only those who have purchased the pattern and design are able to see the videos created for this project. All the links to everything I mention are included within the instruction booklet, which is also filled with photographs to help you along the way. I have taken a great deal of time to make these instructions extremely detailed so that even someone who is not very experienced, with the help of the videos and detailed instructions will be able to follow along. The Instructions have also been translated into French and the French PDF is included in the downloads.