Sweet Heart

This was my frivolous sewing project for January. I ordered this bag as a kit from Grandmothers Garden in November. That and a subscription to one of their Block of the month quilting projects were my Christmas present (to myself?). Unfortunately the BOM is pay as you go and there's nothing to pay with now but hopefully I won't be unemployed for the entire 9 months.
The pattern is Sweet Heart from Moon Shine designs by Monica Poole. (note I've linked to the listed url but it doesn't appear to be working) By and large the pattern was fairly easy to follow and the bag went together easily. Even though I read all the instructions first I still managed to get a bit wrong with the base using the two padded pieces in the actual bag rather than saving one for the plastic base insert. Ultimately it didn't really matter but I have made a note for next time. Template plastic was called for in the base but I chose to use plastic canvas which was just a bit more rigid.
The pattern suggests a gathered rose with or without extra ribbons and beads as embellishment. That's not really my style so I decided something a little more structured and geometric would be better. I happened to have the book Flower Origami by Kumiko Sudo out of the library and decided one of her flowers would be perfect. I decided on the Sun Rose as being simple and effective so made up a couple in scrap fabric to work out the size I needed to make before using my bag fabric leftovers. I was looking for a yellow button to use as a flower centre and was going to cover one when dh made some comment about putting a smiley face on it and I remembered this button that had been sent to me as part of a promotion. Perfect!


Overall I think the bag is really cute and I'm quite pleased with it. It's much smaller than I anticipated when I ordered it but that's probably my fault for not checking measurements when I ordered. The pattern comes with a larger size so I can make another but the kitset only had enough fabric for the small size. It is definitely the most expensive bag I've ever bought because postage was another 20% on top of the kitset price anyway but it is fairly unique and it was nice to make something for ME.