church bags

this past Christmas, in an effort to simplify and enrich our gift-giving experience, i decided to try handmade giftgiving. we limited it to the children's gifts for each other so they were assured a non-handmade gift of something "cool" they might really want from their parents and santa. they were all pretty new to sewing, so i was involved to varying degrees with what they made. i think this week i'll share with you their items.

first up are the simple but sweet bags my 6 year old son, bear, and i made for his little sisters.

the girls use them to take a few quiet items, a box of wipes, and a hairbrush to church. bear picked out the materials himself from my stash. he thoroughly enjoyed pressing the fabric. repeatedly. definitely his favorite part. i cut the bags out myself, a matter of a few straight lines. bear's not ready for the sewing machine just yet (or more accurately i wasn't ready to teach him yet as we were strapped for time at the point these were being made) so i had him run the presser foot of the machine and snip all threads for me. in this way, he was involved and i had some control of the outcome.

a closer look at the fabrics and ribbons used:

ribbons from strano, purchased at two peas in a bucket (dot com); fabric is hushabye, tulla pink for moda.

each bag took less than a fat quarter of two fabrics (one for the outside and one for the inside) and a yard of ribbon, which is what i had on hand of each ribbon. next time i'll get a bit more ribbon so i can make a bow for each side of the bag, and make them a little bigger. maybe a yard and a half. if you don't count the time i sewed a fabric on backwards, i probably spent about 30 to 45 minutes per bag.

I'm really happy with the bags. They were super easy to make. The instructions for them came from Emma Hardy's Sewing For Children, which, by the way, is a fabulous book if you want to get kids started sewing. I adore her designs and we've had great success with the projects. My older children have even been able to complete them with out any help from me.