Christmas Bags

I was reading a post over at Mama's Song of how she makes these Camel Packs for her children in lieu of Christmas Stockings. Before reading the story, I had already decided to not put up Christmas Stockings, but I wasn't sure what I was going to do instead. I was so moved by her story and the bags she was making for her kids that I shut my computer down and went to Walmart to buy supplies.

Now that sounds really great doesn't it? Except I had no idea what I was doing or what I was in for. I did not have a pattern. All I had was the picture of her bag. So I opened the simplicity catalog and looked and looked until I found something close. You never can tell by the pictures how big these things will turn out.

I picked some fabric and off I was to begin on the bags. Did I mention that I had no idea what I was doing? At any rate, I got my sewing machine out and took out the pattern and read and suddenly I seemed WAY in over my head. I called my Mom to tell her what I was doing and she was so excited that I had to sit down and figure it out. These are the times that I miss having my Mom live near me. She could have just come over and helped me. I could have cut the pattern out and she could have done the sewing. Sounds like a plan to me. But since I was on my own, I just had to learn by trial and error, which is fine as long as you are not starting the project two days before Christmas. :-)

I wound up sewing my son's bag twice because for some reason in all my years of elementary, middle, and high school, plus 5 years of schooling to be a chemical engineer, I didn't seem to master the concept of front and back. In the land of sewing reading REALLY is fundamental!

He was so disappointed because on the first bag I had this really nice animal print, but when I went back to the store to get more fabric so I could start over of course it was gone. I was able to get some nice car fabric, but the colors were not nearly as nice as the first print.

So here is how they turned out. Not too bad for a novice. :-)

Here is Jasmine's bag:
This is the inside of Jasmine's bag:This is the back pocket:And Christopher's bag:

I filled each bag with little gifts including books, hot wheel cars, silly putty, jacks, balls, etc. Then before I went to bed on Christmas Even, I hung them on their chair at the dining room table. They absolutely LOVED them!