A bag for my mother

 My mother is leaving France soon to go back home. When she saw me making the school bags for the boys, she asked if I could make her a simple bag with a zip. When I made my totes for friends, they often made the remarks that it would be great to be able to close the bag with a zipper.

I realised that it was time for me to take up this challenge. I turned to internet as usual and found a great site that explained clearly on how to make a zipped up bag.

I used the rest of the material from A1's bag and for the lining, I used fuchsia. The bag has both my mother's favourite colors.

Inside the bag, there are two pockets.

My mother is very happy with her new bag. It is a simple tote and just the right size for her. I bought more zippers and hopefully can make a few more to brush my skills.

School bag for A2

 As promised in my previous post, here is the bag I made for A2. As he only needs to bring a change of clothes to school, I made him a small haversack.

It is a pirate ships theme bag. When I showed it to A2, he was very happy and immediately had it on his back to show his father and his brother.

At the front, there is a transparent pocket. He can slot his drawings in it. At the back, there are two zipped pockets for him to put his treasures. It was really hard to attach the zips to the bag. This is a difficulty two bag and I took nine hours to make it. I had to unstitch my works twice. Good thing, it looks presentable in the end.

I am taking a short break. I made this bag in the midst of paint works in the house. Over the weekends, Seb and I painted our living room and dining area. Once the kids were in bed, I worked on the bags late into the night.

My next challenge is to do a zipped tote bag for my mother. She requested for one when she saw the school bags I made. I hope to get it done before she goes back home in two weeks time. 

New school bag

A1 is going to the grand section in Septembre. As he would be bringing school work home, he would need a bigger school bag to hold the A4 size folders.

I looked up on the book Seb gave me and decided to make him a cartable. I bought faux leather and cloth and bag accessories and sewed my way through three nights. Clocked up a total of nine hours and presented to my son his new school bag.

Though A1 asked for a bag with rainbows or planes, I made him one with submarines because I thought the prints suit him a lot. I showed the bag to uncle Tim and he said it was rainbow submarines. I think that impressed A1.

A1 loves it. I was happy. I realise that the shoulder straps are a bit wide for his little shoulders. Hoping he would grow broader in the months to come. 

It was not easy sewing this bag. I had to undo some stitches due to mistakes and if one look really carefully, one can see tiny needle holes at the back.This is only a difficulty level one bag.

I planned to make a bag for A2 and chose a difficulty level two bag. I shall post it soon. I just finished it yesterday after three working nights.

Walking the dog

A2 went for a walk with me and Handsome in the forest during my lunch break. When we were leaving the forest, A2 managed to walk Handsome on a leash.

Handsome is always excited to go to the forest so he pulls hard on the leash during the 100m walk from the house to the forest. Once we reach the forest, we would let him run free.
After the run in the forest, Handsome is usually tired and walks well with the leash to go back home.

As the dog turns two in a month's time, he is getting more obedient. Our aim is for him to walk obediently beside us without a leash. That is in training. . . . .