simple little bags

 
I stayed up last night into the early hours of the morning. Sewing.  Which will probably not surprise you. Not tackling a project I needed to do (There's certainly plenty of them.) Of course not. But sometimes you need to break away from the invisible crafting list and just create a little something for the sake of it.

In the back of my mind I had been meaning to make a little bag for Julia to take her (always small) projects to and from sewing classes. So last night, after Offspring had finished, after the kids were in bed, I plugged in the sewing machine and set to work. It was good to be back! I'd been finding it hard to get any sort of motivation going in the way of sewing lately, and I think a small project like this was just the thing I needed. While I was at it I thought Violet may like a slightly smaller similar version.

 

I love the chance to mix and match old fabrics, and so I teamed a strong old linen tea towel with a mix of scrap florals, all (except the grey lining) originally from the op shop. I cut two squares for each bag, adding a pocket to the front and some lining. I used to be scared of lining. Until I discovered that it can actually be easier to line than to zig zag all the unfinished edges. Besides being a perfect excuse to add another fabric into the mix.

To finish off I quickly embroidered an initial on each. No too carefully because I was getting quite tired by this stage. Such is the way of late night sewing. In my experience late night sewing is really only suited to those free style projects with room for error. It was good that this project was one of those.

It turns out the girls are happy and ended up wearing them most of the morning. Stuffed with an assortment of books and small toys. The only problem was getting a decent picture amongst the school holiday chaos and dim lighting, and I didn't quite succeed with that. But not to worry, I think those simple little bags are just what we all needed.

Because we all know it's not just about the sewing.