The Learning Umbrella

Yesterday was a light daycare day, since only the little baby showed up.  At first, we were all a little unsettled without more playmates here, but the kids were OK after I took them outside and we planted some seeds in our garden.  Then it started to rain, and we all had to come inside and find crafty things to do.  Carbon made lots of boats to float in the bathtub (I didn’t take any pictures of the mess he made, but imagine styrofoam, popcicle sticks, a couple pie and roasting pans, and lots of tape all over the bathroom floor).  I made these handbags, from Bend the Rules Sewing.  This is the first project I’ve tried out of this book, but I know I’ll be doing some more.  It’s a really cool book, and the directions were easy to follow.  I didn’t really measure anything to make these bags, just eyeballed and them trimmed as necessary.  I also skipped a step from the directions, and didn’t put a stiff bottom in the bags.  They seemed fine this way to me, and I didn’t have any stiff interfacing.  I just used scraps and trims that I already had in my stash.  In fact, that brown fabric is the left over bits from a sheet that I cut up to make curtains.  The sheet was $7, and I’ve made it into a big curtain and two handbags, and I still have some for something else.  I’m giving  both of these away in swaps, but I really like the pattern, so I might make another for myself.