Whew.

So last night I realized I had forgotten to figure out a teacher gift. And not just teacher, but teacher's aide too! Considering that we are currently broke, I decided to make something with stuff I had on hand. As you know, I've been making a lot of purses lately so I had a lot of leftover supplies. Just enough lining fabric, just enough fusible interfacing, just enough fusible fleece, exactly two magnetic clips! It was meant to be.

I found a free pattern online at madebyrae.blogspot.com. She has a free tutorial for her darling Buttercup Bag, and I had a lot of fat quarters, so it worked out perfectly. I made a few adjustments: namely adding fusible fleece to the lining to firm up the bag and fusible interfacing to the top band to give it more structure. I didn't do the cute button flap because I ran out of energy, but I think they turned out cute:

This is the bag for Mrs. Haynie, Caralie's kindergarten teacher.

It's a slightly oriental feel with butterflies. Mrs. Haynie loves frogs, but I just couldn't make a bag with frogs on it. She also loves science - especially biology - so hopefully flowers and butterflies will suffice.

Then there is the teacher aide, Mrs. Delucia. I have no idea what she likes. Hopefully she'll like this:

I like it so much I want to keep it for myself!


I stuffed each purse with a bag of Peppermint Bark Popcorn:


Caralie made the cards and we shoved it all in gift bags.

Now I'm trying to keep myself out of the popcorn.