tinkering tuesday: ballet bag for olivia

My Olivia is starting ballet for the first time, next week.  She and Martin went to buy her first ballet shoes this morning, and she made Martin so proud. New ballet shoes in hand, she looked up to him and  with all the gratefulness in her heart, it seemed, uttered out of the blue, "Thank you, daddy."

I made her this little bag to keep her shoes safe and try my hand at a little embroidery.

I cut out 4 pieces of fabric the same size for the bag, 34cm x 22cm.  2 pieces for the bag and 2 pieces for the lining.

First I found an image of a ballerina silhouette, printed and cut it out, and then traced it onto the fabric.
I then chose an embroidery stitch that didn't  seem too complicated: Whipped Running Stitch.  Just a basic running stitch, and then you use another colour to weave through the stitches.

I found this stitch quite forgiving if your running stitches aren't perfect (and starting out, like me), and also that it is more effective if you weave with a lighter colour and stitch with a darker shade.  On the other piece of fabric, I traced her name, and embroidered that too.

I am still learning to sew properly, yet I somehow got the bag stitched together, probably not in the correct technique, but it seems to be working. If anybody knows of a nice tutorial for a drawstring bag, let me know.