Emma's New Dance Bag!

It's finally here!  I finally finished.  Ok, to be honest, I got most of it done fairly quickly but then I had to wait to embroider it and then wait to have time to finish it up. But all that waiting was worth it, cuz it's so freakin cute!  See...

Look!  It's LINED too!

I LOVE this bag. There are SO many ways to spice this sucker up!  I'm still thinking of adding a bow in the middle and maybe a feathery thingy.  You could add more tulle and a LOT more ribbon!  Don't know yet...

Here's a quick rundown of what I did:

1. Cut two pieces of outside fabric and sewed up 3 sides, leaving about an 1 and 1/4 open on the end of each side

2.  Finished remaining 1 1/4 on the top of the sides by folding it over and folding it over again and sewing.

3.  Then I found someone really cool who helped me embroidered Emma's name on it. (try not to pay too much attention to the size of the letters- it was my first time with a machine!)  **Any decoration done to the bag should be done BEFORE you put the lining in it.

Here's a pic of one of the sides to try and give you an idea:

4. Then I gathered my tulle (just doubled the circumference of the bag) and sewed it on.  Followed that with some pom-pom stuff and then ribbon.

5. Then I marked the bottom corners where I wanted the grommets to go and cut out a TINY x through both layers of fabric.  Took out a handy-dandy tool  (ok- another friend loaned this one to me) and squeezed on the grommets.

6.  Then I sewed up two pieces of my lining fabric.  My lining pieces were cut slightly smaller (about a half inch or so-in height) because I wasn't going to be making the casing with the lining as well.  This is where I'd probably do things differently the second time around because it got a little wonky.  This time, I sewed all the way up both sides and then just serged around the top to finish off the top of the lining.

7.  I placed the lining inside the bag.  *The bag should be slightly taller than the lining.

8.  With the bag-only fabric I folded it over 1/4in and then 1 inch to make the casing for the drawstrings.  Make sure that you catch the lining in this step!

9.  Then I pushed the string through the casing with a safety pin and tied it on at the bottom on the back of the grommets.

All Done!!   Isn't it great?!

Feel free to contact me if you need any help.  It's such a fun project!