Break Out!

Sometimes, you just gotta do it.
An idea is just floating around and fabric is just too fun, that something, something not pre ordained or manufactured, pattern-wise, just has to pop out.
2G's mama was needing a summer bag.
2G'S mama loves Amy Butler fabric.
2G's mama is an appreciative audience.
So off I go to the sewing room, eager to produce a One of a Kind design.
Did I have a design in mind?
Nope.
Just stood there looking at the fabric, waiting for the direction. Thought about her needs. She likes puffy, fleece interlined, soft formed bags. Her mama needs dictate that there are lots of pockets, making, keys, pens, change, crayons accessible. Her little shoulders tell me that her shoulder strap should be narrow and strong for all the dinosaurs and dollies and books that will get crammed in for the road. A stout magnetic snap to keep the contents together when she has to throw it down to chase after an errant child bent on destruction.
But it must be pretty as well as utilitarian. Lightweight and feminine. A girly workhorse of sorts.


And so the process begins as the framework and objective is established.
The first cut is made and I follow the needed design from my heart and mind to the cloth.
From that point of committment, it all flows.
From picking out a coordinating lining, to how to finish the pockets, it just flows.
I realize that this in not much help for those of you that rely on pesky things like measuring tape, rulers, algebra and geometry (I kinda just shuddered just writing those two words) but that is how I roll. Experience, familiarity with how things go together and a clear desire to want to make something.
Crazy, huh?


But with time, patience, testing, and a lot of hopeahoping, it starts to take shape and tells me how it should be finished up.

And then the best part.
Giving a bag that has been designed specifically for her, with her needs and likes in mind...
Ah, that is the best part...