Tutu Tote

Another little girl's birthday party today, hurray!  I am really enjoying making little gifts for the girl friends of my two sons.  It is finally an opportunity to sew some frilly stuff.  Today's party theme was princesses so I created a little bag for the now-3-year-old birthday girl that is reminiscent of fairies and ballerinas. 

I made this bag using the instructions for my ribbon-handled tote which you can find here.  Since the outer fabric I was working with was fairly light weight, I added a layer of thin batting before embroidering the recipient's name on the front.  For the tutu portion I cut tulle 12" deep by the width of the fabric.  I pieced together three widths and then folded the long strip in half lengthwise, making a very long 6" strip.  I stitched a gathering stitch just inside the folded edge, drew up the stitches and pinned the tutu around the bag, overlapping the two ends.  I stitched it in place on top of the gathering stitches on the outer portion of the bag before inserting the lining as per my tutorial.  Striped ribbon handles finished it off.

I love the pink and chocolate brown color scheme (as you can tell from two other projects I've recently completed here and here) and I've just about depleted my stash of these fabrics so I guess it's off to the fabric store next week to restock.  I'm sure I will have many other girly-girl birthday parties in my future.