Friday, October 12, 2012

sweet little messenger bag

Happy Friday! I am so ready for this weekend. Plans include resting, sewing, pumpkin/apple farm, and baking. I.can't.wait. I am happy to say that I am almost done the getaway bag, I just need to do a bit of hand sewing the lining, and I am ready to start some colorful cloth napkins. I am fairly sure they are going to be awesome and I am going to have a really hard time giving them away.

I thought I would share more pictures of the little messenger bag I showed on Wednesday. It is another gift crossed off my list. It started long ago when I first saw the girl playing with horses fabric. My first thought was that it would be perfect for my cousin's daughter as her mom is really into horses and I think she is too. I finally broke down and bought a fat quarter of it recently and decided it would work perfectly with the naturalist's scavenger hunt bag from Growing Up Sew Liberated.


As a side note, let me just say that I love this book. It has some great patterns in it and I have loved what I have made so far, and I have plans for a bunch of other things. I found it hard to find any books with good basic kids patterns, particularly for knit fabrics (which my little love is much more likely to wear). Although the crossover tee came out larger than I had wanted, she wears those jammies all the time. 

Back to the project at hand. I loved this little bag from the moment I saw it and couldn't stop thinking about what a cute flap that heather ross fabric would make. The only thing I changed from the pattern really was that I curved the flap and used a skinny binding instead of stitching it and flipping it out. I I really wanted the pop of color around it and it gives it such a nice finish. I did leave off the eyelet that the pattern has since I didn't have one and did not feel inclined to go out and buy one.


I used the same fabric for the entire lining and just used 2 different fabrics for the outside. The little pocket is my favorite. Since I used quilting cotton (aside from the flap), I did use a light interfacing on everything to give it more structure and it worked out well.




While I love it, there are a few things I would do differently if I made it again. I might add a closure for one thing. I don't know if things are just going to fall out of it. Also I should have read through the instructions first because I didn't realize how the adjustable strap was going to come together. It threads through a ribbon loop and I am a bit worried about that holding up to 4 year old wear and tear, but I guess we'll see.




I really hope she likes it and will get good use out of it. It is now happily sitting in my gift pile and I have it all crossed of my list. It feels good. I am planning on doing a few more gifts and then I get to stop and make a quilt :) I am kind of hoping to be halfway done my gift making by the beginning of November, but we'll see what I can do in the next couple of weeks. I also need to stop and make a few more shirts for the little one too....always so much to do!

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