Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Mini Bow Tucks Bag

 About a year ago my daughter Sophie turned twelve. In our church that means she gets to move to a special group just for young women ages 12-17. It's a neat time for these girls and I wanted to make something special for her. She and I decided on a tote for her scriptures and young women booklets she would take to church each Sunday. So I bought the pattern, and found really cute fabric that was perfect for her at the time. Well, long story short, I never got to making the bag :(. I know, bad mom. Flash forward a year and I found the happy little stack just waiting to be made and decided I needed to get it done!
 The pattern I used is the Mini Bow Tucks pattern by Penny Sturges for Quilts Illustrated. It was the perfect size for what I was trying to do and thought it looked like a great pattern.
Sophie's favorite colors and green and aqua and she loves the outdoors. When we were originally looking for fabrics we found the perfect fabric line by Riley Blake, "Good Life". 

It even had this print that included the Young Women values that she was using at church.
 
We had also picked out an aqua polka dot, but when I was pulling together the fabrics, Sophie thought this orange print would be a little more fun. But not to use it "too" much.:) So I followed orders and used it for the base and opposite side of the handles. She wanted more green, so I used a green ribbon accent and ribbon for the bows on the side.

The inside has plenty of room for her scriptures, notebooks and YM booklets. You can undo the ribbons to let out more room on the sides as well.
The pattern was easy to follow and I love the way the bag itself turned out. BUT....there are some things I would've changed. For one thing I would've put the orange onto the outside of the handles. Even though she didn't want too much orange I think the contrast would've looked better. And in the end since a whole year has passed Sophie has actually matured since then. She IS a teenager now, yikes! And even though she still likes the fabric I think she would like something a little more "hip" (that's not even hip to say is it?). And she really doesn't like the bows on each side. I'm trying to figure out what I could do to change it up and remove them. Something with elastic? Any ideas? So all in all, I'm glad I got it done, but not sure if Sophie will ever use it. I guess that's what happens when you wait so long to get a project done!

8 comments:

Tessa said...

It's lovely, I like it :)

Little Lady Patchwork said...

Great bag!

I agree with you about the orange handles, but it is still very cute.

Funny how teens change their minds daily!
Stefanie

Tammy said...

It turned out beautiful. Those fabrics are perfect.

Emily C said...

If you have some of the orange left, make elastic bands for the sides. They will stretch and look cute + add the orange.

Staci said...

The bag is really cute and so well done. May I ask a question? I've recently had to change up to the larger print edition scriptures and need something to put my new very HUGE books in. Do you think this tote would be able to hold them? Changing up makes me sad because I can't use a quad any more and I feel like I am always juggling the triple combination and the Bible, plus the books are just plain HEAVY! Anyway-- very sweet tote! And I like the suggestion in the previous comment about elastic. I would never have thought of that!

Anonymous said...

I love this bag! I would have used it when I was a teenager =) I would use it now lol. It is super sweet and looks amazing, especially with the orange. I will have to find this pattern =)

Anonymous said...

If you have more of those cute green buttons, you could put do something with those and orange hair elastics - they would stretch but also could be unfastened completely if needed? Very cute bag!

Anna @FreshDewDrops said...

Just came across this tote from Pinterest. Love it! You did a really nice job with it. What internal layers did you use to keep the sides so firm and neat looking? Is there anything different in the bottom?
Thanks!

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