Sunday 2 September 2012

Handmade P.E. bag

It's back to school time here in Northern Ireland and my little daughter went back on Friday.
Last year I made her a P.E. bag (for her school gym gear) and this year I gave her a choice of a new 'plastic shop bought' one but she chose to use this one again.
I'm delighted it has stayed in pretty good shape after a year of being bounced around every week at changing time!
 
As I just started sewing last year and couldn't find a pattern for one I made it up as I went along.
Now, I would do quite a few things differently but I still love it anyway :)
I lightly padded the bag with 'iron on' Vilene H640 (I love using it in bags).
 
 
For the closure at the top I looped one string through and stitched the bow at the end to make it easier for little hands to handle, rather than two crossed strings to pull at each side.


 My sewing lines at the top of the pocket are definitely a bit wobbly.....!
To do the embroidery on the pocket, I faffed about printing Phoebe's name in mirror image on the paper, tracing over it in pencil and then laying it face down on cream fabric and transferring the pencil marks to the fabric.  Now I've learned that you can print the name as normal, lay the fabric on top and trace over it - how easy is that!
Though for darker coloured fabric you could still use the other way.
 
The elephant button was a little addition from Phoebe - she definitely has her Mum's passion for buttons.... :)
 
Thank you so much for visiting today,
I'll be back soon with some more projects!
Sarah xx