In the next two weeks, I’m going to teach you how to make a Swedish purse, which I’m told they call a “pocket” in Sweden. Rather than having a strap that goes over your shoulder, these pocket-purses wrap around your waist, like a belt. However it would be easy to alter the pattern to include a shoulder strap if you like.

But one of the neatest features about the pocket-purse is its detailed embroidery work. Since I make doll-sized purses, this doesn’t require months of work; instead, you might spend an hour or so on the embroidery work. Or, if you have a sewing machine that does the embroidery for you, it might only take you a few minutes.

One of my online friends, Tonya, runs Windwoman Designs, where you can purchase embroidery designs for your machine at very reasonable prices. However, for those of us who don’t own a sewing machine that embroiders, I’m going to post a few basic embroidery stitch tutorials this week, to help you get started with some simple embroidery patterns. Then next week, I’ll offer my patterns for the pocket-purse and a video tutorial showing you how to make one.