Made with Love - Baby Bag with Jungle Friends in Anchor - Downloadable PDF

Made with Love – Baby Bag with Jungle Friends: A Complete Embroidery Pattern Guide

This free downloadable PDF pattern from Anchor, designed by Anchor Studio, guides embroiderers through creating a charming baby bag decorated with jungle-themed friends. Published by MEZ GmbH under design number 00600002-00708-02, this project combines classic hand embroidery stitches with a ready-made bag to produce a beautiful, personalised gift for a new arrival. The pattern is rated as an intermediate project, making it well suited to crafters who have some familiarity with counted cross stitch and backstitch but are looking to build confidence with a practical, finished item.

What Is Being Made

The finished project is a baby bag measuring 45 × 38 cm, featuring a hand-embroidered Aida panel decorated with jungle animal motifs. The embroidered design itself measures 30 × 9.5 cm and is positioned centrally on the Aida panel of the bag. The result is a functional, gift-ready tote that celebrates new parenthood with a playful, nature-inspired aesthetic. Because the bag comes pre-made in beige, the focus of the craft work is entirely on the embroidery, making this an accessible yet rewarding project.

Materials Required

Thread

• Anchor Stranded Cotton in 8-metre skeins, worked throughout using 2 strands
• One skein each of the following Anchor thread colours: #264, #265, #301, #302, #326, #337, #374, #1003, #1038, #1050, and #9159
• This palette spans a range of greens, browns, and accent tones to bring the jungle friends to life with depth and detail

Notions and Tools

• One baby bag in beige with an integrated Aida panel
• One tapestry needle, size No. 24 – the blunt tip of a tapestry needle is ideal for counted embroidery as it passes cleanly through the Aida fabric holes without splitting the weave

Techniques Used

The pattern uses two fundamental hand embroidery techniques that together create the fully rendered jungle design. Both are classic counted embroidery methods worked directly from a charted grid, where one square on the chart represents one cross stitch worked over one Aida square.

Cross Stitch

Cross stitch is the primary technique used to fill in the coloured areas of the jungle motifs. It is worked in two stages: the lower diagonal stitch is worked first, from left to right across a row, and then the upper diagonal stitch is worked back from right to left to complete each cross. Working in this methodical two-pass approach ensures that all the top stitches lie in a consistent direction, giving the finished embroidery a neat, uniform appearance. Cross stitch is one of the oldest and most universally recognised embroidery techniques, prized for its ability to render detailed pictorial designs on evenweave and Aida fabrics.

Backstitch

Backstitch is used to add outlines, fine details, and definition to the cross-stitched jungle animals and foliage. It is always worked after the cross stitch is complete – the pattern explicitly advises this order of working. Backstitch travels from right to left, with each new stitch beginning at the end point of the previous one, creating a continuous, unbroken line. This technique is essential for adding crisp edges and character to embroidered figures, and in this jungle design it helps define the animals' features and the outlines of leaves and other motifs.

Stitches Used

• Cross stitch – for all filled colour areas, worked with 2 strands of Anchor Stranded Cotton
• Backstitch – for outlines and fine detail, worked after all cross stitch is complete

Working the Design

The pattern instructs embroiderers to position the embroidery in the centre of the Aida panel