Ah my pretties…and welcome to the world, baby girl!

I had an hour or two To Myself  last Saturday  .  A very important thing that is- time to spend on what one wants to do!  As opposed to today when I promised MyMike that I would fumigate organize  our bedroom and master bath. Why is it seeming to take all day?

We celebrated a dear friends birthday last week and I thought a little gift would be in order.  She and her husband love to travel and are heading off to Africa next month.  Meanies!  In honour of that, I decided that she needs a few toiletry cases. 

I pulled out a little pattern from Thisandthatpatterns that I stole from my mom!   She picked it up at a sewing expo ’cause Mme Micaela loved it.  I find the size a bit too small to be useful for cosmetics, as it is too short for mascara.  Seeing that  mascara is the number one make up item stolen from my bathroom whenever the girls are home, I think that it is ultra important that a makeup case needs to be big enough to hold one!  And hide one!  It is also too short for holding pens/pencils, but it would be good for hanging on to various electronic cords, or jewellery.  I am having a heck of  a time finding the pattern online!   When I did find it, I realized that it does not have finished dimensions for it or any of the other patterns that the company makes. I guess that isn’t much of a problem as the patterns are not available on her website, but I still think it would be a good idea to add a bit of a description to a product line. You need to scroll down the page that the above link sends you to, and the pattern is Abby’s Treasure Box. 

That, 3 zippers,  a dollar store shower curtain for the leakproof lining , a bit of batting and some homedec remnants was all I needed to make 3 various sized bags.

The pattern calls for using various quilting fabrics, and the finished sample was what caught Mic’s eye. It is really cute that way, but you could also  omit the quilted look by using strips of fabric instead of piecing.  The pattern is actually only for the small bag, but I graded up, and omitted the piecing for the 2 larger ones.  All it took was a bit of grade school  high school math to figure out dimensions.  You know they say that using your brain keeps you young! 

Here they are prior to being wrapped.  My friend loved them!  At least the bags will get to Africa! 

And, of course the most important photo of the day…Our first grandchild Hailey Rhea Thom, was born yesterday (Jan 23, 2010) at 7:10 pm weighing in at 7 pounds 15 ounces.  It was so thrilling not knowing if we would be welcoming a girl or boy, and I am so excited to be sewing pink again!  I do not promise not to bore you with her exceptional beauty and intelligence in the next while!  So be prepared!

Tagged as: bags, gift sewing, Hailey