Summer Sewing Series 2025

 The school year is a little too crazy and too busy for me to do much sewing, no matter how much I enjoy it. 

But, in the summer, IT IS ON.

And I got an early start this year as you saw from last week's post. Now that I have completed those pre-projects, all I can say is...

"And so it begins."  :)

My theme this year is apparently scrapbusting.  Usually, I have a list of things I want to make running in my head. If I had not carved out time to do my "pre-projects," I would have begun with those.

This year, however, I only had one thing on my list. So that's where I started -- all while compiling a list of scrap buster projects.

Last year, the youth group had quite a few little meetups on the regular during the summer. It just filled Rugrat's little social butterfly heart. And she made sure to check that the youth minister was planning them again this year. While mentioning it about 159 times to us as well to make sure we didn't forget.

One of them is a group lunch outing after a Bible study. While she has other commitments during the study, everyone is invited to show up for the lunch outing. Which happens to fall about 30 minutes after her commitment. And is about 10 minutes from the church building. 

It is perhaps her favorite thing because she gets to order for herself, pay (and bring back my change), and eat out while hanging out with her friends and NOT her parents. All her favorite things.

But she doesn't like to carry her purse (it's big so I don't blame her) and her phone doesn't have that kind of cover that has a spot for money. So I let her choose some fabric and put together this cute little bag from this online tutorial.

The flap is actually not wonky. I just didn't realize I had it laying that way when I took the picture.

When you open it up, there is a zippered pocket for coins and such.

Behind the zippered pocket is a very slim pocket that is perfect for a phone to go in. And in front of it is a space big enough to put any other essentials while still being quite small.

Perfect for an afternoon outing when you don't want to carry everything in your hands.

I had intended to make it a crossbody, but Rugrat said she wouldn't wear it that way so we measured how long to make the shoulder strap and attached it with some clips and d-rings.

I still had extra strap left over though. So I made some wristlet type key rings. They could also be used as a strap if you didn't want to use the shoulder strap, I suppose.

Obviously, practice makes better because the second one turned out a little better than the first. I'm thinking I might have to find a way to use one of these myself.

I have no illusions that Rugrat will actually use this bag but it was a fun little warm-up project.

Now, on to the scrap busting.