Monday 19 September 2016

Useful and Good Looking

Just like the kids, when September hits I'm back to school. This year I'm not in the same room all day so I needed something to help me be portable and keep me organized.

I decided on the Caravan Tote as a good sized bag. It will fit my binders and whatever marking I collect. It got great reviews online, which is always helpful. I didn't make all the pockets and zippers it called for - I didn't need them and I wanted to keep the cost down.



I used Essex linen as the dark base with Mon Ami as the floral and a dot pattern as the inside. I bought .5m of each fabric and had very little left over. The base has a quilted cross hatch in it - hard to see in this photo - of 2.5-3" squares to help hold the fusible fleece in place. Sorry I don't have a photo of the inside. I put in a small zippered pocket and a hook to hang my keys on. I've been using it every day for the last two weeks and it works great. It's the perfect size and I love how it looks.

I also made myself a marking pencil case to go in this bag. I don't do any marking at home so I need a small case that holds my essential marking supplies for when I'm marking - usually at Starbucks.
I used some of the fabric left over from the bag to create this:


It holds all my essentials - kleenex, pens, highlighters, clips, and post its.
I used this pattern (by the same designer as the Caravan tote, but free) and made the size small. It's big enough to hold pens and plenty more.

Finally, I needed an every day pencil case to hold all my other supplies. Pens, pencils, clips, elastics, everything I could possibly need. I used the Sew Together Bag pattern and put this together. The fabric is "Apple of my Eye" by The Quilted Fish - it's part of the first fat quarter set I ever bought. I've been saving it, I don't know for what, and broke it out for this project. This bag is great and holds everything I could possibly want in a day.



And maybe the best thing about everything I made - I love my fabric choices and they make me happy every time I see them.