Our Embroidered Gigi Tassel Bags are some of the most complicated bags we've made yet. Inspired by a design owned by my late Grandma, these bags were infused with so much love and intention from beginning to end. We'll go through each step of production we went through to see these to fruition beginning with the first pattern being created, to the designing of the embroidery, picking out thread, and more.
The first step in our design process was to decide the pattern of the embroidery and shape of the bag we wanted to make and create a pattern for it. We knew we wanted to model the shape after my grandmother's old bag (shown on the right below in black), so that made it easy to create a pattern for it.
Original Bag in Black with the embroidery design we sketched on paper
The second step in our process was drawing out the design we wanted embroidered and tailoring this design to each piece of fabric that will be sewn together. We wanted our embroidery to match that of the original bag but since there needed to be a seam allowance, we had to extend the original embroidery on a piece larger than the bag itself.
Once we came up with our embroidery design, we took it to our favorite embroidery expert in downtown Los Angeles. His name is Marcelo. He made our very first embroidered bum bags for us a few years ago, so we were very happy to be able to work with him again. After going through all of the different color options and thicknesses of thread, we chose the exact color and thickness we wanted and he a few tests for us on sample fabric to see if we liked what we chose.
We took a look at the few test runs he ran for us with our decided thickness and colors. One thing you should know about embroidery is that the more stitches you have (aka the thicker the embroidery), the more expensive it is. This is something to definitely consider when making any designs.
Once we've finalized our embroidery design and found the color and thickness of thread that we were happy with, we brought our cut pieces of Pinatex (our fabric) to our embroiderer and placed our final order with him for embroidery production. Once they were finished, we picked them up and took them to our sewing factory in another part of Los Angeles. Here they were sewn into the bags we know and love.
Finally, each and every tassel is made by hand in our sewing facility along with the construction of the bag. The chains are cut to size in our own studio and viola! You have our embroidered Gigi Tassel Bag.
Shop our Gigi Tassel Bag in Silver Pinatex and Gold Pinatex.