Embellishing a plain canvas bag

I got really hooked on giving art supplies in an artist's tote for the kids' birthdays I've been invited to this year, so it's been bothering me that I was too busy driving and knitting on a deadline to make a bag for the latest event this past weekend.

Turns out I didn't need to worry, because the art supply store was selling these:


and when I saw the rack of them I remembered I have a bunch of things like these:


I bought them last summer, for about 10 cents apiece, in a small town Salvation Army store. (don't you feel sad when you see somebody's work just set aside like that and not really valued?)

Probably any little girl who's carrying her art bag off to sketch with will want a little doll or stuffed animal to come along with her, or maybe some sweets, so I thought a little pocket would dress up the bag and show some love for the doilies at the same time:


It was a bit tricky given that the bag was already sewn up (and pretty small at that) but I was able to machine stitch the doily onto the front from just past 10 o'clock to a little before 1 - the perfect way to hold the doily's shape and still let a hand in there to scrounge for chocolate.

H'mmm... that feature makes it a perfect gift for me too, doesn't it. Good thing I have more doilies!