Better Late Than Never

My life seems to be backing up, piling up and I'm somewhere lost in all the mess.  I admire all those super punctual, organized people who have it together and they have these wonderful systems to get through life without lacking behind.
 I'm not one of those people. 
Not even close.
A matter of fact, my mind runs so fast I can't even keep up with my own thoughts.  This may be a sign of a mental issue, it may be normal, regardless it's me.  I'm pretty sure the world of technology and ideas for just about anything at my fingertips, does not help my case.  Maybe one day it will get better.
Until then, I will remain a gazillion days behind on all my thoughts and projects and hope that my duty of motherhood is a fair enough excuse for all the lagging.

Now that I've got that out of the way. . . refocus. 

Last school year I decided to attempt my teacher bags again.  I wasn't quite as enthused but they turned out.  Several things had piled up into this last week of school.  One was our house had officially gone under contract and we were in the process of possibly moving with a very close deadline.  Then we decided this may not be the right decision.  I was emotional stressed and distracted.
On the bright side of things,  I was more involved and got to know the teachers a bit better this year.  This helped in the process.  I cannot make a bag without some inspiration from the actual person.

SHARP
She was an outgoing and easy going person.  She loved Liam.  He loved her.  She loved bright colors I could tell just from being around her.  Then she said her favorite colors were pink, red and lime green.  When I saw this fabric I couldn't resist.  I lined it with lime green.  The front I added some 3-D effects that flowed with the flowers.  I loved this bag so much I almost kept it for myself!

DAVIS

This one was easy.  Mrs. Davis is the perfect example of Southern, classy lady.  Sweet demeanor, soft spoken, always smiling and stylish.  Favorite color was a teal green.  I saw this beautiful material with all the soft colors, BINGO.  I made this tote smaller than my normal bags.  Enough to hold a book or two but not large.  The bottom was something new That I tried.  It wasn't going together as smoothly as I envisioned, but it ended up with the result I wanted.  Chevron is a beast to work with, I might add.  I chose a flower with points instead of round like the previous bag to flow with the bohemian pattern. The sash was something I decided at the last minute to throw in to create a simple finishing touch.  I couldn't decide which side to put it on.  What do you think?

 

CHRISTOL
This bag just turned out cute and the response from the teacher was worth every minute put into the bag!  This is probably the simplest bag I have ever put together.  Not ruffles, flowers, or 3-D extras.  This was plain and simple.  This bag was large because I knew the teacher still had little children.  We need large bags with small kids!  Her favorite colors were the school colors--red and blue.  I had to be very careful to avoid a patriotic bag.  I also have a rule to never use just two colors-- never.  I needed a third color.
She decorated her class with Snoopy and I kept thinking of the yellow bird like things on the cartoons.  Mrs. Christol is also one of those people you meet and know she teaches elementary school.  So, when I came across this awesome gold polka dot fabric I knew I had to use it with something.  Her bag.  I was pleased with how it turned out.

Webb and Schumpert

Another thing on my bucket list was to make the boys' teacher totes for their teachers.  I work on getting to know the teachers all year so that I can make them these bags.  This time with moving I didn't think I would get them done.  I made sure to not pack my sewing machine and I sewed while we were living in our little one-bedroom abode.

Webb-ster

Mrs. Webb's favorite color is blue.  She is laid back and traveling constantly with her daughter's softball team.  We talk about books all the time.  As-a-matter-of-fact, she recommends my reading recommendations to other teachers in the school and realized I have a "book club" of about 8 or 9!  Wish I had taken advantage of that and known, at least I recommended clean books, whew.  She isn't frilly at all and has a bit of a modern side.  You just think of summer when you see her.  So, as I browsed the fabric over and over at the store when I saw this one I knew it was just what I wanted--on sale or not.

Buying the fabric is the hardest but my favorite part.  I really try to study "my subjects" and find just what's right for them.  Make it personal.  This was a heavy duty fabric that could handle those softball games and traveling.  It has more white than I would like but it should wash well.  It's hard to tell but the stitch across the yellow is a leaf pattern that mimics some of the pattern in the fabric.  I also didn't do any finishes on the edges so that they could fray over time.  The worn look will be natural and handle her busy lifestyle.  I gave her a book as well to kick off the summer.

 

Suzy Schumpert

Liam's teacher I didn't get to work with as often and it was hard to know what kind of bag she would need.  But when I saw this fabric I immediately thought of her and what I wanted to do.  I knew I would do ruffles for her.

She loves to garden and travel.  She is classy, girly and loves the colors blue, red, and pink.  This was a no-brainer.  This fabric is gorgeous and it had her written all over it.  I thought "this will be a quick bag."  I love when I know just what I want to do.

Talk about a nightmare!  The fabric pattern went a certain way so I had to sew it more like a pillowcase instead of the normal way.  Then I had to determine where the bottom would be and how wide so I could judge how many ruffles I should make (because that all had to be sewn on first).  The math was getting complicated on this one and I was starting to lose it.  When I finally figured that out I had to decide what size I wanted the ruffles, which was trial and error.  There is no easy way to measure ruffles.  Thank goodness I have a ruffler--yeah right, I only broke one needle, apparently was trying to sew with a bent one causing ALL kinds of problems, and lots of knotted stitches.  It was about a day just with ruffles and I had no phone to call my sewing machine guy for help.  This is why you always keep the manual by your side!  I finally got it all figured out and finished the bag.

It was huge!  So big I thought I might have to redo it.  I had my friend test it out to make sure it wasn't too large.  She thought it was perfect and convinced me to keep it that size. 



I miss her (our neighbor we were living with).  I need to make her a bag.

Hot and Cold

So I guess I've kind of started a tradition by making bags for my kids' teachers. This year I decided to take the boys with me and let them pick out the fabric. I told them to pick out what made them think of their teacher the most.

Lesson #1: Do not go fabric shopping with four boys.

Lesson #2: I love that my boys have a love for color as I do. But arguing with an 8 year old over what matches best can be exhausting.

Over all they both had a great eye for what looked good and suited their teacher best. Their teachers were both excited and loved their bags. (It was also a nice report to get from last year's teacher that she still uses her bag, has washed it, and it's still going strong. That's a relief. I always worry about them falling apart.)

These bags I call HOT and COLD. One, the boys are polar opposites in everything they do and their teachers pretty much are too. But I also chose these names because the colors of the fabric that were chosen.

HOT--Ms. Sherrod

This was picked out by Tipton. His teacher loves all colors but Tipton said she loves Tennessee football. What's more appropriate, right? I almost wouldn't mind having this bag for myself considering my favorite color is orange. Especially the fabric on the strip and handles. . .I need to find a place for that fabric in my house. I loved it! Tipton approved my design and requested that it have a ribbon. I randomly came across this hot pink gingham ribbon on my counter. He thought it looked great and I have to say I liked it myself. But it was still standing plain so I decided to add a simple pink flower to finish it off. Normally, I like to add some cool colors to balance things out but the two purple strips were just going to have to do I felt nothing else was needed. So we loaded it up with some chocolates, and card and story written by Tipton. He could not WAIT to give her her present. COLD--Mrs. Ownby

Blue's her favorite color. She and her husband are TN football season ticket owners. I knew just where to go with this bag after Liam and me finally came to an agreement on fabric. Liam put a lot of thought into these fabrics. He thought of her lunch sack and clothes that she wears. He was very pleased when he found this fabric. I think it's quite beautiful myself. His teacher is a little more frilly, traditional, reserved. I wanted to put all that in this bag. She also loves to read and scrapbook so I knew that I needed this to be a deep bag to fit all her goodies. I couldn't resist adding some purple just because and I needed just a little pop of warmth to be satisfied with this bag. . . surprise! I chose orange. It just seemed fitting.

Beautiful Burnette

These flowers don't really have anything to do with my following pictures. I just thought they were beautiful and matched the bag I recently made. I call this bag "Beautiful Burnette," not brunette. This was for Liam's amazing first grade teacher. I really did love her. I know it's only Liam's second teacher but as a mom it's been so wonderful seeing someone care about my child and his learning.I chose to make her a bag because she loves to read and every time I volunteered we would discuss books and talk about the characters like they were real people. I love that! I also learned that her favorite colors were pink, green, and blue. I couldn't' find a blue that I was satisfied with so I stuck to the happy combo of pink and green. Mrs. Burnette is also very girlie and I felt I needed to make this bag just as girlie.
I was pleased with the outcome. (Autumn give me your bag back. I'm embarrassed. I will make you a new one.) The only problem that I ran into was that I soon learned after my plan for the bag that she had just gotten a Nook. I figured there wouldn't be much need for a bag anymore and she would need a cover for that cool new gadget.
This led me to the "nook" cover. It was going badly. I couldn't seem to create what was in my mind. FRUSTRATING!!! I had to do it twice. Unsuccesful.
Third time's a charm, maybe? In this picture I am realizing that the elastic is very crooked. I had a much different vision here to hold the nook but that elastic was not cooperating and I had to come up with something.I now have created the trifold cover. I actually liked it better.I don't know what's up with this pic but that one side of the bag really isn't all lopsided.