International Craft Swap

I have made a little gift for a clever sewing blogger in New Zealand, as part of House of Pinheiro's International Craft Swap.  The idea is to hand make something Nautical and add this to a small gift for an international sewing enthusiast.  Everybody who wanted to participate was paired up and I was partnered with the very talented Kat from New Zealand.
Kat has an amazing collection of vintage patterns, so much so that she runs a separate website just to catalogue them all.  She is also very organised with her fabric and notions collections.  Such an organised and imaginatively creative person could surely want for nothing that she couldn't create herself...
So instead of looking at her sewing world, I took my inspiration from the recent addition to her home, a lovely baby boy.  This gave me some direction to chose bright, bold blues but not what to use them for.  Then I asked the blogging community for some help, which turned up this little gem:

Nautical detail of my International Craft Swap.

Can you guess what it is yet?

Lunch bag made at Nessa's Place for Kat.

This is a lunch bag meant to carry those square compartmentalised Bento boxes.  It has a drawstring lid to keep things from falling out.

Really it could be used for anything = small crafty projects or even for little boys to collect all their toys and treasures inside.  I'm sure there will be lots of uses for this Nautical bag.  I hope Kat finds it useful.

The lunch bag has a draw string opening and is fully lined.

The tutorial is from Ayumi's website the Pink Penguin.  It is a well written and clearly photographed tutorial.
I did make a practice one before I made this one, which I blogged about previously.

In Conclusion

This challenge brought up lots of food for thought.  What to make for someone who can make things for themselves, along with a lot of 'what will she think' worries.  But in the end, it is only a small gift and it really is the thought that counts - the idea of having a handmade gift arrive in the post from the other side of the world, a special something that somebody has put a lot of thought and time into creating, just for me.  That is a heart warming thought in deed.
And finally, the 'what will she think' worries?  I have learnt that all sewing bloggers really want to encourage and support one another with kindness and a generosity of spirit.
...Now let's just hope the Postal Service doesn't let me down...I haven't heard if it's arrived yet..eek!
IT HAS ARRIVED! Yay!  And Kat likes both the bag and the little gifts I sent.  She is planning to take her lunch to work in this tomorrow.  Success.

My Very Own Lunch Bag

I recently fell in love with a few small pieces of fabric  called fat quarters, and I didn't really know what I was going to do with them, I just knew they had to be mine.  (Fat quarters are squares of fabric that are roughly a quarter of a metre square)
Then I received a link from fellow sewing blogger gMarie and knew immediately that this project would definitely allow my new little pieces of fabric to sing!

Lunch bag Tutorial from Ayumi at the Pink Penguin.

Ayumi's tutorial is a lunch bag that is just the right shape to hold those small, square lunch boxes with all the little compartments inside them (Bento Boxes).  It could be used for other things too of course - holding a hand stitching or crafty project, a little person's bag of treasures, to pop into your bicycle basket when cycling down to the village...etc.
But My Very Own Lunch Bag will be used for taking my (healthy) lunch to work.  And here it is!

Yay!  I found a use for those lovely vintage ladies as well as the Kaffe Fassett cabbage fabric on the handles.
It took about a half hour of careful cutting with my rotary cutter to get all the pieces ready, then it took a couple of hours following Ayumi's tutorial step-by-step to create my very own lunch bag.  I am confident that it would take far less time if I were to do it again.

The bag has a drawstring cover to keep dust out
and would keep my lunch from falling out,
 if I tip the bag over in transit.

Hope you can read the novelty ribbon in this photo.  Such fun!
This photo also shows my one mistake - a little inserted pleat because I didn't pin.

Here is the second one I have made - this one will be a gift.

Do you ever find you just HAVE to add one of these small pieces of fabric to your shopping basket?