I posted recently about how much I love a lot of the new Ikea fabrics and this one is not an exception. I think the combination of origami and animals is genius and love the stark clean lines.

Up until recently I've resisted the urge to buy any though, because being upholstery weight, I just haven't been able to think of a justifiable use for it. An Ikea trip with my mum a few weeks ago changed that and not only gave me an excuse to pick some up but also gave me the inspiration that I needed to make this tote.

The tote itself is for someone very special to our family. I came up with the idea, because as much as I love the simplicity of the print, I felt it needed to be slightly more feminine and wanted to introduce a little burst of colour.

At first I thought about some embroidery to add colour and texture, but to be honest, my embroidery skills aren't the best and I needed something a little more instant. So instead I came up with this simple and quick idea.

I started off by tracing over the reindeer and then transferred the image on to bondaweb (flipping the image).

Then I ironed the bondaweb on to the back of the fabric scrap that I used (both are Liberty) and carefully cut out all the individual pieces.

Next I just ironed each piece on to the original reindeer.

I didn't want to use a heavy zigzag stitch to finishthe edges, but the bondaweb alone isn't strong enough, so I used a small straight stitch and (once I discovered that I've lost my darning foot) just stitched backwards and forwards in lines, so that it looked like sketching.

I also filled in the parts that were too small for the applique with stitching, again so that it looks like it's sketched.

I like the way this looks a lot and have started a cushion for myself, but this time I'm filling in all the animals. I've also got a much bigger idea for it that involves my own screenprinted fabric as well as the applique.