Kids' Messenger Bags

Just in time for our trip next week, managed to finished the messenger bags for my twins. This is based on a fantastic easy-to-follow tutorial from mmmcrafts.

When I printed out the blog post and showed to my twins what design they would like to have, Samuel immediately told me he wanted a blue guitar and Audrey said she wants a pink butterfly. So the easiest was to draw a these icons and use felt to cut them up and applique them onto the flap. Followed the great tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew! blog on how to do machine appliqués. As this was only my second time to do appliqués on my sewing machine, you can see there is still room for improvement. The little pieces and details were sewn in first onto the main body and then used the sewing machine to appliqué the entire design onto the flap.

I've reduced the size for these bags as the size specified was a bit big. I think I reduced the width of the bag by 4 inches. The pink one uses cotton canvas and the blue is denim linen. For the latter, I had to add some batting to give it body as it ended up a bit too soft even after the lining was added.

The greatest feeling was the big smile they had when I showed them their bags and immediately wanted to put stuff in. They didn't want me to take pictures of it as they just wanted to walk around the house with their bags.

Sacs A Tout

A few weeks ago, I saw a blog post on Non-Dairy Milk showing her 'les sacs a tout' and this got me really inspired to make one for my twins. It so happen I was reading on 'Creative Family' about creating some 'sleeping bags' which the kids can put pajamas in along with books and whatever they want to take to bed with them. So I merged these 2 concepts together and this is what came out of it.


I had loads of fabric that I bought almost 4 years ago and never managed to get anything made out of them. Okay, the background story is, when we moved to Shanghai about 9 years ago, I couldn't find clothes that fits because most Shanghainese women are very small and thin. Hence I discovered how cheap it was to just buy the fabric at the market and getting a tailor to do it. Of course there were the good and bad experiences in between. So when I had my twins, I've stopped buying fabrics and getting clothes made. Recently I decided to dig up these and found a lot of 'treasures' I had already forgotten I had. Years ago when I purchased fabrics, most of them were 'girly' ones and none suitable for a boy so had to buy the blue aquatic one for a mere US$1.00 per metre.

Last weekend, I started with my bag (the brown one) to try out the pattern and instructions (which was only in French) from Guirlande. Made mistakes along the way but overall, was happy with it and it is quite roomy and big enough to put my knitting/crochet projects in.

Then during the weekend when I finished my bag, I started cutting up the pieces for my kids' bags. They were eagerly anticipating their 'sleeping bags' and kept coming into my new craft room to check on the progress! Last night I decided to stay up until 3am to finish both bags. I was inspired to finish these and trying out different ways of making it.

The kids were very happy to wake up this morning and seeing their finished bags on the coffee table. Audrey filled hers with a couple books and her current favourite teddy. Samuel immediately emptied some mini figurines of Disney characters into his bag along with a couple of his current favourite books.



The one major thing I changed was the handles as well as adding some extra stitching on the edge of the bag esp near the handles for durability. If I were to make this again, I will still use cotton canvas fabric and not soft ones like linen and they don't hold their shapes well.

Anyways, so happy with how they turned out and I might make some more for some kids we know for Christmas. Never too early to start. This is a good way to use up my stash of fabrics.