Bag Therapy

To counteract the stressful effects of the past couple months, I'm on a bag-making spree. Some people go crazy with their credit card in department stores, I just make stuff.

This little darling is a new creation that I conjured up for a belated (ooops!) birthday present for one of my nieces. It's headed for Arizona as soon as I can pry it away from Hazel, who thinks it should belong to her.

I need to make another one pronto so there won't be any meltdowns. It's actually a very quick little number to make (compared to my other bags) and I'll do a tutorial for it when I make another one.

It would be a really cute clutch purse for a teenager too, with a shorter strap and eclectic fabric. This darling fabric, by the way, is from Farmer's Market by Sandi Henderson = my favorite fabric line for little girl's clothes and such.

Here's the inside of the bag I made for a friend who watched Eliza while I flew to Utah to help with my niece's wedding.....which was "only" a year ago. Better late than never, eh? It has been a really crazy year for me, hence the super huge delay in my payback schedule. :-) This fabric is mostly all by Amy Butler, who is among my absolute favorite designers of fabric for grown-up girls.

This one turned out so cute! All this fabric is from Michael Miller, and I'm really distressed that it is out of production because I'm now OUT OF STOCK of these fabrics. I'm trying not to hyperventilate about it, even though this combination is to die for (says I). I made an apron with these prints put together, you can see it here.

This bag is in the deserving possession of a dear friend of mine here locally, and it couldn't have gone to a better person.

I'm seriously thinking about cutting my apron apart so I can make a bag like it for myself, though...unless someone can tell me where it's still being sold somewhere? Or if anyone is willing to sell me some of their own personal stash?! I'm tellin' ya, it's a very traumatic experience to be faced with the knowledge that I will never be able to duplicate such cuteness again.

So here's yet another bag for another dear friend, this one with (mostly) Joel Dewberry fabric. You can find all these designers in my sidebar, by the way, if you want to hop on over to their blog/website and check out all the goodies they have created.

I'm so glad there are such talented people in this world. They make sewing such a fun experience.

Not to leave out Eliza, I made a new messenger-style bag for her as well. You probably recognize Sandi Henderson's fabric, and the other bits are from Joel Dewberry.

The inside is full of little slots for her pencils and other such drawing tools. Because, after all, one can never have too many drawing tools.

Well, when they're all lumped together like that I guess it's quite a big collection! I often feel like I never get anything done during the day, but since I'm no longer spending up to 8 hours a day doing anti-headlice cleaning, laundry, and treatments (and holding my breath that the nasty little critters don't come back) I've had a little more time and energy to do other things. Like make bags. Now I need to hurry and make myself one before the rainstorms quit and I head back outside to continue the massive relandscaping project of our backyard. After this (long) winter I'm SOOO ready to be outside in the glorious spring sunshine, working to the melodious music of chirping birds and the happy laughter of Hazel, who adores being outside more than anyone else I know. But until then, I have a few more baggy ideas...