Phoebe Bag

I had a Björn Borg shoulder bag for over five years but it was slowly starting to fall apart (or disintegrate, more like!). So it was time for a new bag, and it just happened that I had a small piece of a lovely mod fabric that I had saved for a special project.

I salvaged the shoulder strap and the zipper from the old bag, and made myself a brand new Phoebe Bag. Loving it. I didn't make the magnetic snap, but used the old zipper instead. In retrospect, I maybe should've used interfacing to support the mid-weight fabric, but then again, I didn’t want the bag to be too rigid either.

The Phoebe Bag pattern is by Rebeka Lambert of Artsy Crafty Babe, and I can recommend it highly.  Great pattern, well written, and it’s free, too!

Bean Bag

Here's one project that I should've made double right away - the bean bag. It's the favorite TV watching spot for my boys and something that is fought over quite often.

The bean bag is stuffed with small styrofoam beans (about 1 cm in diameter) which tend to be very static and fly all over... Here's the best tip I got for handling them: cover your hands with a fabric softener, at least up to the elbows. It reduces the static and makes filling the bean bag a lot easier.

I also made a second bag from an old sheet inside the cover, so that curious little boys can't just open the zipper and spill the beans, so to say ;) There are also two loops for handles for jumping around like a Hippity Hop. The pattern comes from Moda magazine 1/2008, and fabric is from Ikea.