Storage sacks

I'm not sure when I'll ever be able to resist my children asking me to sew or knit something for them. I suppose I have a hunch that there may come a time when homemade is not what they dream of. So now, if they ask me for something, of course I will give it a go.

On Saturday O was getting her dance things ready for a new term of ballet lessons and trying in vain to stuff everything into her little pink ballet bag. I think part of the reason she loves ballet so much is the vast amount of kit she has to have:

• one pair of ballet shoes,
• two pairs of ballet socks,
• one pair of character shoes,
• one circular character skirt,
• one leotard,
• one matching waist band,
• one (large) make-up bag full of hair accessories,
• a hairbrush
• and a pink cross-over cardigan.

She sat on her bedroom floor with piles of this stuff around her, and declared, "I need a new ballet bag. Can you make me one?"

For a while now, I have been meaning to make a few of the drawstring travel bags from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing book. I decided the largest one would work well as a ballet bag.

It was very quick to make. I used the last remnant of the IKEA fabric I made O's bedroom curtains from when I was pregnant with her! The pink phase is becoming more dilute as she gets older and I love this fabric for being girly without sacharine. And I always love gingham.

I used pink polka dot grosgrain ribbon for the drawstring and embroidered a simple label using a scrap of leftover Clothkits fabric. I think it may be jazzed up further in the next day or two with a couple of suffolk puffs in a red fabric - perhaps a red polka dot.


Yesterday I was helping C tidying up his bedroom, and getting very tired of treading on marbles. Almost as bad as treading on lego. "I need a bigger marble bag," he sighed. "Maybe you could make one as big as O's ballet bag?"

No further encouragement needed! I whipped up another drawstring bag for his marbles. Not as big as O's ballet bag, but much larger than the tiny little bag that he had before. I cut his old marble bag in half and used it as a patch label on the new bag.



I've had a few goes at making drawstring bags before and have never been very happy with the finish around the top - where the drawstring is. This Heather Ross pattern is excellent for giving such a neat finish with absolutely no fiddling or swearing involved. The casing is sewn with no gap in it, but after reinforcing the seams with a small, tight zigzag, part of the stitching is then unpicked to make the entrance to the casing.

I love the way they look.

And I love the way they keep the marbles and the ballet kit neatly (but prettily) tucked away.