I Love Mornings Like This

I woke up feeling that happy giddy feeling you used to get as a child when you had a new toy and couldn't wait to get up to play with it.  It took me a couple of minutes to realize that I was still super excited about sewing again. I am making a bag for J to take to a youth conference next week, using one of the most intelligent patterns I've ever found--the Mail Sack by Kathy Mack. I've loved this bag ever since I read about it on her blog. I think it's pretty awesome that you can take flat, two dimentional fabric like this:

Ginseng by Joel Dewberry. It's a home dec weight fabric, but pretty dreamy to work with. You can buy it here or here. Some of the prints are sold out, but you might be able to find it locally. We bought ours at Creative Crafts and Frames in Corvallis.

And then end up with this lovely 3-dimensional product (modeled by the eventual user):

We changed the pattern up just a bit--we added a small magnetic snap and then customized the interior pockets to accomodate a lip balm, a couple of pens, and her notebook (small specifically-sized pockets instead of two good-sized pockets.

No pens in this picture, but you can see the notebook. We also made a pocket sized for her cell phone.

It was a dreamy, easy project to sew. I completely recommend the pattern. There are lots of pictures of it on Flickr, so if you are on the fence, go check it out and then make your own! I used fusible fleece for the interfacing. The more I make bags, the more I like that instead of heavy-duty interfacing. The heavy-duty stuff never seems thick enough. The fusible fleece gives you both heft and thickness, making it perfect for bags (in my opinion). Now to make one for me!

(On a side note, I saved the bigger scraps for my person in the Super Crafty Swap because she is a quilter, and can appreciate them. I also hope she likes vintage patterns, because we culled our collection last night, and I'm throwing those into her package as well!)