Expedition Bag

My kids go to an expeditionary learning school, which (without going into too much detail) basically means that they go on a lot of field trips. Because I'm always looking after Henry I hardly ever get to chaperone on these trips, but when I do I am always annoyed to discover that I have to carry around this folder full of papers/instructions/emergency contact information etc. regardless of where we are or how long we're there. So last time I went on one of these trips I thought to myself, hmm, wouldn't it be nice to have a bag I could use to carry all that stuff around in?


Voilà! Here's one I put together in a couple of hours. I could have done it a lot faster if I was better at sewing. I still think it's pretty cute though. The strap was way too long so I just folded it over and stitched it so there's a little shoulder pad on the strap instead of all that extra length. Here's the picture:

The pattern came from a book called "The New Handmade: Simple Sewing for Contemporary Style " by Cassie Barden. Of course, this is the second bag I've made out of this book, so it doesn't really fit the whole "crafting my library" thing since the idea is to make just one project from each book. But I really needed an expedition bag, so once again ...

The pattern is called "Reading List Tote" and it's on page 16. I did change the pattern so the bag is crossbody instead of a tote, since I need to be able to comfortably carry it for several hours at a time.

Anyway just so you know I haven't gotten lazy, I have actually been making stuff, just not posting about it. I finished Henry's quilt top today, too, which turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. I have no idea how I'm going to quilt it on my tiny little machine.

More later ...