Halloween Sewing: Laura Ingalls Wilder

I meant to blog this before December. Oops.

Isabelle and I read through the Little House books this year so it was no surprise to me that she'd want to dress up as Laura for Halloween. I was about her age when I did the same thing. =) I ended up using a blouse pattern (because I loved the wide collar) and extending it into dress length. With the apron I just sort of winged it...ha ha, literally- I used the technique from my nightgown tutorial for the angel wing straps. The back had a two-button closure- pretty easy.

I found the pail at WalMart. It was perfect! Although little miss stared at it and declared it too small to hold all the candy she was dreaming of. I pointed out that it was actually much larger than her little purple treat bag** she usually uses. Kids. Ha!

Our two youngest with Dad; the older two stay home to hand out candy or hang out with friends. There was no sewing involved for my hockey star. I sure am glad I'll get the chance to make more little costumes for the next few years!

And with Mama...and baby  =)

**Here's her little bag. I used puff paint- super fun and easy. All our kids used theirs for years and years, and the paint stayed on perfectly. Now I'll get to make another one!!!!!!

Click HERE if you want to read an update on our surprise pregnancy. Have a great day!

A Fun Summer Tote Bag with Pockets

Okay, first things first. I have no idea what's going on with the color in these pictures, so I'm going to go ahead and blame it on the weather conditions. I only remember sunny skies, but hey, the problem couldn't be me, right?

Anyhoo.

I was green way before it was widely accepted, as I used to make myself tote bags back in high school. They were known to hold flowers on occasion, the ever-present glass bottle of Lemon Iced Tea Snapple, writing journals, knick-knacks, sometimes even my flute! So maybe I was more of a dork than an environmental activist, but I loved to sew, and I loved bags. I saw it as the ultimate win-win.

For whatever reason, I hadn't sewn totes or pouches or clutches in a really long time until just recently. I had this one in mind for Isabelle's teacher, who is such a sweetheart; she also just lost her Mom two weeks ago after a long illness, and we feel so sad for her and her family. Isabelle and I decided on a tote bag with lots of pockets because we could fill them with goodies for her for the summer.

The colors are bright and fresh, but since they are cottons, I added a little quilt batting for some stability. I realized too late that I should have added batting or at least interfacing to the straps, but they are layered and stitched together, so unless she's using this tote to transport bricks, she should be set.

The straps are long enough for the tote to be worn on the shoulder, but not so long that they'll be a pain simply to carry. I like that in a tote.  =)

There are no pockets on the inside, but there are six outside. They're rather narrow but not too deep, so they should hold sunglasses, phones, water bottles and the like very well.

Some of the fun things we included were small bags of candy, pens, a crossword puzzle, a cute spiral journal/notebook, some sparklers and a few other simple items. We sure hope she loves her new tote bag and the surprises inside.

I shared a photo of the bag on IG and a few people asked if it will be for sale in the shop...I don't know! (But thanks for the vote of confidence!)

I wrote about some of our summer traditions over at Celebrate...the post is here if you want to read it. Hope you have a fantastic weekend!