I was so lucky to receive some advance charms of Bella, the new designs by Lotta Jansdotter for Windham Fabrics. They arrived two days ago and I started cutting and sewing immediately! I paired the prints with two Robert Kaufman Essex Linens in Steel and Grey from Marmalade Fabrics. I just love the combination of Bella and these linens. I had just enough to make this tote bag (front and back are the same).

I hand stitched about a 1/4″ in along the edge of the linen triangles using some Cosmo Floss that was sent to me by the sponsors of the Zakka Style Sew Along. Are you familiar with Cosmo Floss? I was not until I received these samples. I said that I was interested in their variegated collection and they generously sent me every color under the sun so you will be seeing lots of it. The thread is gorgeous. It is six stranded and separates like a dream with no tangling and has a nice sheen. Here I used an ash grey to nearly black variegated thread which works so nicely with the two linens.

I recently read a blog entry by Lotta Jansdotter. She described the process of designing this new line with Windham. I thought it was very interesting. You should click over and read it!