(Self-Proclaimed) Cutest Church Bags Ever! Part 1-Boy's

Now I ask you, are they cute or are they cute?! (And yep, I do mean the kids and the bags :o)

A few months ago I decided the kids were ready to have their own church bags to carry a few small, quiet toys, a snack, and Seth's scriptures/Ellie's song book in so that I didn't have to keep cramming everything into my bag. I tried to find some at my favorite shopping spot- the Thrift Store, but it failed me. I found a few that I thought would be ok for Ellie, but when it came to something for Seth nothing looked 'churchy' enough. About the best I could find was a backpack, but I didn't want to distract form his suit he wears. I decided then and there I was going to have to make my own, but I wasn't quite sure what it would be.

Then I got the brilliant idea to make it out of a suit! Well, if Seth was going to have one made out of a suit then it only seamed right that Ellie have one made out of a skirt or dress. So back to the thrift store I went.

(For those of you who don't really care how I made them, now is the time to go straight to "comments" so you can tell me how brilliant I am and how cute they are :o)

For the rest of you, here's what I did:

I wanted to find a suit with a print that couldn't be mistaken for anything other then what it was, then I found a co-ordinating tie.

Let the cutting begin

I took my two main panels from around the big pockets on each side. In hindsight I should have put the right sides together before cutting out the second panel, just like they would be when I was ready to sew.

(I had cut off two shirt points from one of Seth's shirts to see how they would look for the plans I had for the pocket).

I used the long, skinny part of the tie (minus the very tail end) to make a finished edge for the top of the bag. I just unstitched it and folded it over the top raw edge

and sewed it into place.

Originally I had planned to use 4 different ties to make the bag handle out of, but in showing my plans to Aunt Viv, she suggested that she thought it would be cute to somehow make a tie coming out of one of the pockets. Sounded darn cute to me!

I 'tied' my tie by using a small strip of leftover skinny tie to loop around the fat part of the tie at just the right length to come out of the pocket, then just put a few hand stitches in to hold it in place.

(Even though you can't see it, I did include the skinny end of the tie behind , just like a regularly worn tie would have.)

Although I pinned my shirt points in place first, I didn't sew them until after I had placed and sewn the tie in. I figured that it would be easiest to adjust my shirt points that way, just in case my tie moved a bit and they no longer lined up just right. Then I stitched the shirt points onto the pocket flap.

Now this is still a working pocket if it needs to be. I should note that I considered making this into a non-functioning pocket (there is still a plain, but very usable pocket on the opposite panel) by sewing buttons through the shirt points and panel, but I decided to leave my options open for now. I can always change my mind later and add the buttons then.

Next I cut out a strip from each sleeve including the cuff buttons.

I just tucked in the raw edges and sewed along each long side to flatten it out a bit, then I attached one handle to each side panel with the cuff buttons on opposing sides.

Finally I sewed my completed panels with right sides together along the remaining 3 sides, turned right-side out, then...

WaLa! Super cute boys church bag!

Ellie's "girl's" church bag will be part 2