Cross Stitch Project Bags: Storage Ideas to Keep Your WIPs Organized

Cross stitch project bags aren’t a necessity, but if you’re traveling with a work-in-progress, or just want to keep your fabric, floss and notions clean and corralled away from kids or pets, the right project bag makes a real difference.

Project bags are not a necessity when it comes to cross stitch, or any other craft. But if you’re traveling with your cross stitch, or you want to keep things clean/organized/away from kids or pets, using project bags is a great idea.

Of course any kind of bag can be a project bag, from a zip top bag to a reusable shopping bag. I like to use the plastic zipper bags that sheets come in as project bags, especially for longer term storage of projects in hibernation because it keeps them clean and dust free but also allows me to see what’s in there.

Sirious Stitches has a very comprehensive post covering various options that they and other people in their community use for project bags and storage.

Probably the best thing about it is as it goes through the different kinds of bags there are links to tutorials if you want to make your own (because we’re mostly all multi-crafters, right?) and also places that you can buy bags if you’d rather go that route. You’ll find projects for a clear vinyl pencil pouch perfect for storing bobbined thread, large square pouches, vinyl square pouches, flat bottom pouches with zippers, folio cases with large pockets, bobbin pockets and multi-fold cases.

The point of all that research was that Siri wanted a new project bag, so you can click through to see not only all of these project options but what they ultimately made and how it’s working. It’s a really lovely project bag that makes me a little jealous on behalf of my projects that mostly just sit on my desk (or in a plastic shopping bag, ugh) while I’m working on them.

Do you have a favorite project bag? I’d love to hear about it. And be sure to check out the post at Sirious Stitches.

[Photo: Sirious Stiches]

One of the easiest ways to make a cross stitch project more personal is to add text to it. Whether you’re adding the names of people getting married to a generic floral cross stitch design, birth information to a project on theme with the new baby’s room or just adding a word or phrase that’s meaningful to you, adding words to cross stitch projects make them that much more special.

But if you’re not working with a project that already has text built in, or you want to change the text that’s there, that can feel a little daunting.

Caterpillar Cross Stitch has a great guide to adding names and words (as well as numbers) to projects, which talks you through what to consider and how to actually go about adding text to a cross stitch project successfully.

You’ll need to think about what kind of font you want to use and if you’re using back stitched letters or larger filled letters, how much space you need and how the letters work together in the text you’re planning to make sure it’s readable.

Their post includes common pitfalls such as running out a space or ending up with text that’s off center and how to avoid them (spoiler: chart out your text before you stitch!).

The whole post is really helpful if you’ve never added lettering to a project before and don’t know where to start. I like to use block letters in back stitch when learning how to add text to cross stitch, but of course there are tons of lettering options. Check out this collection of cross stitch fonts if you want to see some different things you can try.

And head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch to get more tips for how to successfully add lettering to your cross stitch projects. They also have their own alphabet and number charts you can buy to add text to your stitching.

Have you ever added text to a cross stitch project? I’d love to hear how it went!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

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