Karlene's Workshop

Hand bag designed by Alyssa

Posted on 30 July 2009

My seven year old niece Alyssa asked her mum if she would help her to sew a bag with her sewing kit. I asked her if she would like me to make one for her, of her design. She looked up at me with big round eyes and said “Can you make bags Aunty Karlene?”. I replied that yes I could, and showed her the bag I was using that day, that I had made. She had a look, got very excited and announced that she would draw a picture of her bag design right away.

Her is her drawing, complete with detailed design brief:

She wanted a round blue bag, with two handles, red on the top, a green button, a pink bow surrounded by black dots, “a real one, you can make the bow and then sew it on, Aunty Karlene” and a purple letter A for Alyssa. Wow! You can also see her first drawing of a more square bag that got crossed out when she changed her mind. This girl knows exactly what she wants.

I followed her design as much as possible and here is the result:

I used blue denim for the base and red velveteen for a flap. I wanted to use black sequins for the “dots” but do you think I could find any? After an hour of hunting in the sewing room and house, I decided to use beads instead. I used zig-zag stitch to sew on the purple ribbon to make the A, and managed to find a green button in my stash that looked ok with the other design elements.

I hope she likes it!

Her younger sister Briana also wanted a bag, more details on that soon.