Butterick 5404 View A handbag

***Discontinued Pattern....whatever...****

Well, another project documented on subjects that roam free in the wild just outside my door!
(Well, a 20 to 40  minute drive away and we have spotted some of them no joke!).

But seriously, I have always wanted to embroider butterflies for awhile now and I started this project between semesters and didn't finish until...March...I think...of this year.

Now, usually, I get accurate colours of subjects in a variety of reference books that I own and one of them was the Lone Pine Published Butterflies of British Columbia, by John Acorn and Ian Sheldon  and the subjects I chose were:

1. Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)
2. Hydapse Fritillary (Speyeria hydapse)
3. Pale Swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon)
4. Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus)
5. Sweet violets (Viola odorata)
6. Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis)
7. English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)

The thing is, you can't spot these all at the same time unfortunetely, but, butterflies are just so cute!

The other thing I would like to mention here is that when you decide to embroider insects and other animals, it is always best to put them as you would see them true-to-life by movement or appearances of scale or weight of the subject.  You can also give them emotion by choosing the right angle of eye coordination etc etc.
We all know that the work put into it isn't real and can't mimic real life subjects 100% but we sure can try as much as we can!

Okay, as for the nuts and bolts of the operation, putting together a bag by Butterick shouldn't cause anyone to pull their hair out, but what I will show is the alterations I made to the square shaped bag that can pretty well go with any damn outfit. 
Granted, this bag didn't have a huge area to work with and that is either a God-Send or a nightmare. Smaller areas mean I can finish up sooner but subjects then lose a lot of real life detail-major trade off)

Onto the progress pictures:

Mourning Cloak finished

Finishing up Lavander

Pale Swallowtail progress



Finished work on bag. The fritillary on the violets gives the impression that the butterfly is weighing down the flower.
The bend in the stem is the result of the weight of the fritillay.

So, as I was pointing out, the fritillary is bending the stem by its own weight because this butterfly is feeding on nectar and is probably travelling from flower to flower.  The Silvery Blue is angled in flight and facing downwards because the butterfly is coming down to feed as well.  It also looks as though the Pale Swallowtail is leaving the scene by its particular angle in flight. 
Anyway something to think about.  Of course all of that is up to each person's interpretation but that was my intention.

I did use cotton broadcloth for this bag so it turned out floppier than I wanted it to, but it still worked. And don't forget medium weight sew-in interfacing and buckram interfacing for the tab closure. 
I also used the pattern suggested magnetic snap tab for a closure.
I used a plum coloured plain weave silk shot with gold for the lining, which the pictures didn't turn out well because of continuous cloudy days here...sorry, I will try again.

Anyway, a simple project used on serious shopping rounds...when I can...

Thanks

Karin