Birthday party goody bags

Charlotte's seventh birthday party was last weekend!  I sewed some goody bags for the party guests (and one for Charlotte, because she would have been incredibly sad if she didn't get one too) out of all of my girliest fabrics.  They're just very basic drawstring bags with the inside raw edges pinked to minimize shredding.

Inside, we put some Hershey's kisses and gummy bears.  Charlotte really wanted a "crafting" party, so the girls also went home with glittery bracelets, decorated cardboard letter (the first letter of each of their names), and some ribbon and paperclip bookmarks.  I forgot to take a good photo of Charlotte on her birthday in her "7" shirt, so I will have to post a shot of that after I wash it this weekend.

The Ice Cream Social Raffle Baskets

The elementary school's big fundraiser this season involves raffling off baskets full of donated goodies at the Ice Cream Social.  I'm heading up the basket for my daughter's first grade class, and my neighbor, Heather, is coordinating the basket for her daughter's kindergarten class.  I made fabric baskets for both our classes because (1) I have an obsession with sewing fabric baskets, and (2) fabric baskets are way cooler than crappy wicker baskets from a craft store.

Heather's basket has a Michigan foods/drinks theme, so OF COURSE I had to use cherry fabric.  [I'm being a little bit sarcastic here.  Everyone in Michigan is convinced that they are world-famous for their cherries even though neither Heather nor I had any idea of that "fact" until we each moved here.  We're happy to go with the theme though.  I'm probably going to be kicked out of the state for saying that, actually.]  Anyhoo, I used the Crafty Hipster Featherweight Tote tutorial (adding Peltex and using duck cloth for the lining).

The basket I'm coordinating will have a "Cooking with Kids" theme and will be filled with brightly-colored kitchen utensils and a gift certificate for a kids cooking class.  I didn't like any of the cooking-themed fabrics at the store because they seemed too girly and I wanted the basket to be gender-neutral.  As a result of my new obsession with this cute chevron fabric, I had to use that of course.  I kind of winged the design and finished the top in a similar manner to my Boxy Fabric Basket.

I went rogue on the sides by adding some large grommets and knotting cotton webbing through them for the handles.  This may be my new preferred way to do this!  I also added a layer of fusible fleece in addition to Peltex so the basket would be strong and structured.  The panel on the front is actually a pocket that is divided into three sections.  I plan to stick the gift certificate in the center pocket and a utensil in each of the outer pockets.

Inside the basket, there will be coordinating parent/child aprons.  The front sides of the aprons look like this . . .

. . . and the reverse sides look like that!

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Linking up to: And Sew We Craft, The Stitching' Mommy

The Replacement Frog Princess Bag

Charlotte's birthday is coming up, so she gets to be the "Frog Princess" next week in first grade.  (It's basically a student of the week thing.)  The Frog Prince/Princess Kit came home with her on Thursday afternoon in a ratty old tote bag that had once served another purpose.  If you look closely, you can see that the words "Emergency Kit" have been crossed out with Sharpie.

UM, I DON'T THINK SO!  There was no way I was sending the kit back to school in that bag.  Not when I love making tote bags so much.  (And I have sewn a few things for Mrs. Bayma this year that she uses a bunch, so she probably won't be offended by the switch.  At least I don't think she will.)

I ran to Jo-Ann's and hunted for frog fabric.  I could only find one bolt, and it had frogs with pink hearts.  Not exactly gender neutral.  I did find some flannel, but that just seemed odd for a tote bag and the print did look a little babyish.  I know the bag needed to be tough because it was going to be dragged home almost weekly by a seven-year-old (or soon-to-be seven-year-old!) on a bus, so I chose denim and duck cloth for the main exterior fabrics.  For the lining and exterior pocket, I chose this cool "transportation print" that matched the colors of the stuffed frog.

Because I couldn't find good frog fabric, I made a frog appliqué for the other side opposite the pocket.  I may grab some golden puffy paint and add a little crown to the frog later if I have time.  I don't want to get all cutesy and paint on a face or anything, though.

I'm totally in love with the lining fabric.  I think I'm going to use it for a couple of projects I need to finish in the next couple of days.

The Frog Princess (still in her jammies) approves!  I think if that girl loses any more teeth, she's going to need dentures to tide her over until the adult teeth grow in.

We need to take the frog on an adventure, take a photo of it, and then do a write-up to put in a notebook that stays in the bag.  After that, we will fill the "guessing jar" with small objects for the class to practice estimating.  And then I need to send in a bunch of photos of Charlotte.  And then she needs to fill out an info sheet all about herself.  Sheesh -- maybe I should have been working on that instead of sewing . . .