I made a messenger bag for one of my nieces for Christmas and it turned out so cute I decided to make another one for my other niece. She is a big fan of dolphins so I wanted to appliqué a dolphin on the front flap.
Here is the detail on the dolphin. I used felt and embroidery floss to attach it. Felt is one of the materials I've been experimenting with lately. I was really pleased with the way it came out.
You may recognize the corduroy for the bag from the roof to the doll house below. I had just enough left to make this bag. In fact I had to get creative in the way I made the strap by piecing the parts together in a way that it would not look odd. I extended the middle by putting a strip that ran against the grain of the rest. You may be wondering why I'm sharing just how little of the main fabric I had left. Disaster struck on the night I gave the bag. I love my husbands grandparent, but I forgot about an important character trait of his grandfather. He puts his name on everything and feels that everyone else should too. Before I knew what was happening he had convinced my niece that her name should be put inside the bag in permanent marker. I didn't know how to stop it. After all it was not my bag anymore.
Needless to say Kylie was not thrilled with the execution of the labeling of her bag. To her credit she did not let it show in front of grandpa. I was trying to come up with a way of fixing the bag. Like I said I had no more fabric to make a new pocket, and I was not thrilled with the idea of taking the entire bag apart to redo the pocket as it's the first step in the process. I decided to add some additional felt appliqué. After embroidering her name and a few water drops so it would be wide enough to cover the original name I attached a large piece of felt across the marker. Much improved if I say so myself. This way she was able to keep the pocket and still have a stylish bag.
I also made a bad for my nephew, but his was more military style with a helicopter painted on the front. His dad jumps out of Blackhawks in the military so I thought he would like that. The name did not look as out of place on his bag so his mom and I decided to leave it. Sorry no picture. Somehow I forgot to take one.
