For those of you who have read the original “Are We There Yet?” post, you will know all about the travel bags I hand out to my children on lengthy car journeys. Well, for our recent trip to Wales I made the children a new bag each:
Elizabeth had been coveting a particular bag on my stall for some time so I thought I would make her something similar; then I had a light bulb moment and decided to give her the actual bag she liked, thus saving myself some work. Rebecca is a delight to make for and I knew would appreciate anything in her favourite colour of red; fast approaching 12 years old I made her an adult style messenger bag. Matthew was much harder as teenage boys don’t tend to have the same passion for bags as us girls, plus I had left his bag to the very last minute and so I needed something that would take minimal time to make; I settled on a simple drawstring rucksack which I knew would be useful in the long term. As for Andrew…..his bags was by far my favourite one to make and features an animal with which he has a long standing obsession: the dalmation.
As with all my Doodlebags work, each bag was made using upcycled textiles and trimmings: curtains, sample remnants, bed linen, a batik wall hanging and a fleece dressing gown.
For the trip to Wales I filled the bags with an assortment of goodies designed to keep the children entertained during the 4½ hour journey, including Doodlebags’ pencil cases, and notebooks which I made using recycled paper and materials from wallpaper sample books:
I distributed the bags in the car at the start of the journey and it was a delight to listen to the happy squeals as they discovered what was inside:
However, this time there was a twist: Richard had prepared a travel bag for me. Granted, it was presented in a Sainsbury’s carrier bag, but the contents were expertly chosen:
We have another trip scheduled for this month, this time to the Netherlands, so the bags have been restocked and will be re-presented to the children as we start our journey…….and this time I have prepared one for Richard:
Just like the one Richard prepared for me, I didn’t make the bag, and I will be wrestling this one from him for my own use 😀