Thursday, November 27, 2008

Child's art tote

Today I scaled down the size of the first tote bag and came up with this one - pictured on the left (...and that means the one on the right is Mine!! All Mine!!)I think the size is just right for a young child to carry easily. I love the channeled pocket on the front for holding pencils and felts.This one also has a pocket inside in the same fabric as the small pocket on the upper front. The small pocket can hold an eraser and pencil sharpener and the inside pocket could hold all sort of treasures. There is plenty of room for a sketchbook and a nature notebook inside.I couldn't resist using the brown fabric for this young friend because the barns drawn on it are very much like her barn.

Now I just need to decide on a strap. I'm dithering between a fabric one or a re-purposed brown leather belt. The birthday girl is as much into making something new out of something old as I am so I think she might get a kick out of the belt idea. We'll see what works out. I love that every bit of this bag came from thrifted items - fabric, thread, quilt batting...even the sheet that I cut up to make a pattern. ;-)

Now I need to make some for my boys.

3 comments:

Katherine said...

Well done! Your artist tote is sure to be a hit. Love your repurposing genius.

Tara said...

Great bag! My daughter went to a magnet school for the arts last year and needed something to tote around her gear everyday so I made a very similar bag out of scraps I had around. I used two old ties for the handles and we knotted them at the top. Her friends wanted me to sew them en masse, which was flattering, but it was one of those things I just wanted to do for my kiddo.

Heather said...

Tara - I love the idea of using two ties as handles. Hmmm, my husband better watch out...he has a few ties that might look quite nice used that way. ;-)