Monday, January 18, 2010

Saturdays are for sewing

I've noticed a definite trend on the weekends since December's mitten madness, in which I open up the sewing machine Friday night and sew for much of the weekend while watching old movies. The movies make the sewing go a lot slower, but I like them, so too bad.

Slow was a problem for this weekend's project though, which occurred to me as I woke up on Saturday just in time for a birthday party that afternoon. The birthday girl was a young friend turning 5, and with Christmas in our immediate past I had a pretty good idea she would be all loaded up with toys. Not that the average 5 year old considers this a bad thing, but something different was indicated.

Something like art supplies, for which I went to a proper art supply shop. Nothing that would be nasty to clean off a wall or a best dress, but still, grown-up stuff, plus some chocolate to tape onto the wrapping.

Then, as I say, I woke up thinking

it's not enough...
it needs something...

it needs...

an art bag.


So I measured and thought and cut out pieces before my 9am appointment, then dashed home to press them and do some initial sewing before the 45-minute drive for lunch with my mum, and dashed home again for the finishing touches before the actual party at, ahem, 2:30.

Since I finished the last seam at 2:16 there wasn't time for many photographs, and it would have been difficult anyway to show the clever inside pocket I fashioned and stitched into the casing at the top of the bag. But it's there, and it's where I put the chocolate. For inspiration.

The casing caused a bit of a panic, being huge. There wasn't going to be any way to keep the ribbony drawstring from slipping right out of it, so I sewed it together like a little pull tag at the end.


Everything you need for a drawing excursion fits neatly inside with space for more tools or treats as needed over time. And it looks quite pretty when you close it up, don't you think?

4 comments:

Kathleen Taylor said...

Lovely bag, and ingenius way to keep the ribbon from coming out.

When I do a drawstring, I often tack it to the cloth (while in the casing) in the center back. It still tightens, but never pulls out (and never ends up with one end twice as long as the other, which bothers me for some reason)

Mary Keenan said...

Oh that is smart, and a lot less work than all the mini seams I put into the tiny ends of that ribbon!

Erika Mulvenna said...

Cute bag and great gift idea! Every little one needs thier own bag of creativity.

Unknown said...

Just precious!