Amidst all the Giveaway Day hoopla yesterday, I found myself with a couple of fun finishes. The first one was an awesome surprise for my son and I when we returned from our weekly trip to the library - the marigolds we planted two months ago are finally blooming! He was so excited, and given that I usually have a black thumb, I was pretty pleased myself. Anyone know when I ought to move them out of the planter and into the regular ground? I'm completely inept when it comes to gardening.
I also finished up my Goodie Bag for the big swap yesterday, which wound up being a big summer tote bag, adorned with some fun scrappy log cabins on both the front and the back.
I started this tote with only one thing in mind - linen. I knew I wanted to work with linen for my partner. The main body is made from Essex linen, which is oh-so-yummy to work with. After debating between Natural and Gray, I wound up picking Natural. Linen is just perfect for totes, if you ask me. I lined it with Peltex interfacing for some nice stiffness, which is a pain to sew with, but it makes such a nice, full-bodied kind of bag.
The scrappy log cabins are a complete mish-mash of fabrics - from Flea Market Fancy to Love to Sugar Pop and Nicey Jane. I really rooted around my scrap bins for some of these, and I'm really happy with how they turned out. Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on Sunday about these, I was really unsure about how they would look on a bag. The only thing I would do differently if I did this tote again would be to make the log cabins a bit bigger.
The lining and straps are my personal favorite print from Alexander Henry's Farmdale, which I still plan to use eventually to make a nice bag for me. That's one of the million and twelve things on my someday to sew list...
I'm hoping my partner will really like this bag, because I had a ton of fun making it for her, although I did have a super hard time deciding what to make for her, since her taste is so broad. The mailing period doesn't start for another week, so it's entirely possible that I may wind up completely changing my mind and making something else for her, but for now, we'll check this off the WiP list!
