Zakka Handmades Pencil Bag

There are days when you need a quick finish. Right now I seem to be in the middle of so many big projects, and while I love each one of them, the endless stream of ongoing work can get a little slow. Today I just desperately wanted to sit down at my machine and make something from start to finish. Since Sunday is my Mouse's third birthday, it seemed like a great opportunity to sew up a little present for her.

Enter Zakka Handmades. I bought this book back at the beginning of summer with great plans to use it immediately, but it just didn't happen. This afternoon when I spotted it on my bookshelf, I knew exactly what I wanted to make: the adorable Children's Pencil Bag.

This is the sweetest little bag. It's quite easy to sew, yet it looks more advanced than your typical pencil pouch. In fact, I had so much fun making my first, that I immediately started on my second...sort of...

One thing that I absolutely love about patterns is seeing how far I can stretch them, especially when it comes to bags. I love to take a small bag and try it at a larger size or shrink a big tote down to a miniature version. It opens up so many possibilities, teaches me more about bag construction, and is just plain fun. So once I finished my first pouch for Mouse, I tweaked the measurements a bit and made a purse using fabrics from my Koi stash and some of my favorite Essex linen.

I love the way this turned out. It's a good shape with lots of room inside. The linen adds nice texture, and even though the bag is larger, it's still a pretty quick finish.

My husband took us out to our local Chick-Fil-A for dinner tonight. We go there about once a week, usually on their family craft night. It's led by a very sweet employee of theirs who has been so good to my girls, and we brought along this purse for her as a small way to say thank you. You should have just seen the smile on her face.

Small finishes. Happy moments. This is why I love sewing, my friends.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.