Homemade Friday: Bags I slaved over that my children ignore

Two days before Christmas I had the brilliant idea to sew bags for each of the children.  Sebastian loves bags and Adele spends much of her time trying to find a way to get to my purse and pull everything out and dump it on the floor, scatter it with her feet, then chew on it.

So I thought, "Hey! I can sew marginally well.  I'll just make them each bags!"

I cut the fabric out during the afternoon when they were otherwise occupied, probably napping, and ignored all of the baking and cleaning I probably should have been doing instead.

I didn't really measure anything, just cut all the lining, which was leftover linen curtain from a massive hemming job, the same size as the outer material, which was what I had on hand.  I actually wanted to use a different fabric for Adele, but it hadn't been washed yet and I didn't want to wait.

The straps were made out of the same material as the lining, and also weren't measured, just eyeballed and all cut the same size.

I'm still working on figuring out my new
camera, thus the blurry photo.

I sewed everything that night after the kids went to bed, and it only took a couple of hours, thankfully.

Do you recognize Sebastian's material?  Check here.  I promise I won't make him carry the bag and wear the pants together.  (Unless of course he wants to.)

I cut two pieces of outer material for each bag and two pieces of lining, then sewed the sides and bottoms of the outer sections, then the lining.  Then I sewed the straps only on the sides, then turned them right-side-out, which has to be the most irritating part of sewing.  I hate it.  It never works right and usually I end up putting a whole in whatever I'm turning, plus my shirt, with the little turning tool.  Plus it just slows everything down.

The A and S were so Sebastian would know which
side Santa put his presents on, and also that the
kitchen, that he is entirely unimpressed with, is for both kids.

After that fiasco was finished I folded the raw edge of both the bag and the lining and pinned it all together with the straps at the edge of each side.  I will freely admit that I also hate ironing as I'm sewing, and allowed myself to skip the next step, which was supposed to be to iron the seams so as to help with the sewing.  (Sorry, Mom.)  I shouldn't have skipped it because as a result the seams at the top aren't as straight as they're supposed to be, plus the straps migrated as I was sewing some and don't line up like I'd prefer them to. 

I sewed this seam at 3/8 and then just right at the edge to get it to look a bit better.

And I did make myself iron the finished bag since the straps were wonky and looked unfinished.

And after all this hard work, they've both barely noticed the bags.  I only got this picture because I forcibly put the bag on Adele's shoulder.  (But isn't my entirely staged photo adorable?)

I pointed the bag out to Sebastian a couple of days ago and he was just like "Oh.  Okay."  Then he walked away to play with cars or something.

But I don't feel hurt or upset.  I like the idea of something homemade for them under the tree, and will probably continue that tradition every year, be it socks or a sweater, a dress or a pair of hats. 

I have no doubt that one day both children will appreciate my sacrifice of time and energy, plus the multitude of needle pricks I received as a result of sheer clumsiness this year.

Just not yet.

(I have so much stuff to show you guys that we'll probably still be talking about what I've done in the past month in March.)