Erika Jo and I had a wonderful Sunday afternoon together. After going to church, making lunch, getting dinner in the crockpot and making rolls we cut out all the fabric and interfacing for her school bag. Then we ate dinner, went on a walk around the temple with Grandpa and Grandma, got the kids to bed and sewed it all up. It came together quite fast. This might not sound like a day of rest but it was one of the most relaxing and rewarding Sunday's I've had in quite a while.
We got her a silver permanent marker that she is going to use to have friends autograph her bag in the black area. It should look pretty cool!
The bag has a full lining so that no stitching is showing and it is also lined with a sturdy interfacing that helps it to hold it's shape.
On a previous trip Erika picked out the fabric that she wanted. We tweeked a few things to make it just the way she wanted and she even free-handed the curve for the flap (since we were to lazy to go upstairs to find a lid that could be our guide). She didn't want the pockets under the flap (that were shown in the pattern), she did want the back pockets but we were short on fabric so made the pockets the size she wanted, and we did one medium pocket on the inside. We also lengthened the strap to made the bag sit on her hip where she wanted. And since the medium size was going to be to small for a binder and the large seemed a little too big we did an in between size to fit her stuff in perfectly. With Erika choosing her own fabric, designing it the way she wanted and sewing a good part of it on her own, all of her expectations were exceeded. She loves it!
The bag has a full lining so that no stitching is showing and it is also lined with a sturdy interfacing that helps it to hold it's shape.
On a previous trip Erika picked out the fabric that she wanted. We tweeked a few things to make it just the way she wanted and she even free-handed the curve for the flap (since we were to lazy to go upstairs to find a lid that could be our guide). She didn't want the pockets under the flap (that were shown in the pattern), she did want the back pockets but we were short on fabric so made the pockets the size she wanted, and we did one medium pocket on the inside. We also lengthened the strap to made the bag sit on her hip where she wanted. And since the medium size was going to be to small for a binder and the large seemed a little too big we did an in between size to fit her stuff in perfectly. With Erika choosing her own fabric, designing it the way she wanted and sewing a good part of it on her own, all of her expectations were exceeded. She loves it!
Modeling her new school bag . . . and her outrageously priced Hollister hat (that we got for $4).
I realized about half way into the project that Erika was pulling the same trick on me that I had pulled as a teen with my piano teacher and my mom. Most of it is due to lack of confidence, some is credited to laziness, but I caught on. The deal was that she was going to actually sew her bag up but since she hasn't sewn in a long time she was using "just show me this step" and asking TONS of questions (which gets the adult to just do it themselves rather than taking all the time to explain the same thing over and over again). It was all a ploy to get me to do all the sewing but eventually I did catch on and she finished it up. She is a bit of a perfectionist so I can tell you that her sewing was immaculate.
She also has fabric to do a makeup bag . . . maybe next Sunday.
I realized about half way into the project that Erika was pulling the same trick on me that I had pulled as a teen with my piano teacher and my mom. Most of it is due to lack of confidence, some is credited to laziness, but I caught on. The deal was that she was going to actually sew her bag up but since she hasn't sewn in a long time she was using "just show me this step" and asking TONS of questions (which gets the adult to just do it themselves rather than taking all the time to explain the same thing over and over again). It was all a ploy to get me to do all the sewing but eventually I did catch on and she finished it up. She is a bit of a perfectionist so I can tell you that her sewing was immaculate.
She also has fabric to do a makeup bag . . . maybe next Sunday.
2 comments:
Love the schoolbag...sheesh, I think you should start a business or something with these bags of yours. I think maybe I need to get a pattern from you because I'm imagining all kinds of bags that I could use...church bags, diaper bags, a fun purse...the list goes on and on.
I'm also still totally jealous of Erika's gread deal on her cute hat. She's such a pretty girl and can pretty much pull off anything I think.
That's AWESOME! What a great idea and I love that you were able to do things together and enjoy one another's company in the process. She looks adorable with the bag and the overpriced hat! LOVE LOVE LOVE it! :)
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