DIY and Book Review: Yoga Mat Bag!

I am back from China!  So, as I'm slowly getting over jet lag and a reluctance to do anything productive, I managed to tackle an item from my list of things to do: Sew a bag for my yoga mat.

Fortunately, I remembered seeing a tutorial in a book I bought a couple of years back, called, Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects by Lotta Jansdotter.  I bought the book because of a 40% coupon I had at JoAnn's one day and I was impressed with the cute designs and the simplicity of the patterns throughout.  This was my first time actually trying a tutorial, however (I know, after two years! I'm a bit of a procrastinator sometimes).

The first step was deciding on what fabrics I wanted to use.  I didn't want to go for something too simple.... I thought this project was a great opportunity to go for some really fun patterns!  For the bulk of the piece, I stumbled across a maxi skirt in my closet that I originally found at a thrift store months back-- I've always loved the bright floral on black pattern, but the fit of the skirt was awful, so I thought it was the perfect candidate for the focal point of my bag!  It was a little difficult to cut it evenly, because of the tapered panels, but I managed to make it work.  The rest of the fabric, I took as remnants from other projects I've done.

I tweaked the dimensions from the tutorial a bit, so that I could utilize a bigger pocket for my gloves/keys/phone, and I added a flap with a magnetic closure (I can get a little paranoid about things falling out, since I'm prone to have that happen).

It closes with a draw cord, which I was lucky enough to just have a spare one lying around.  I went a little fancy and kept the ends a bit long, threading a few wooden beads to the cords, to dress it up a little bit.

All in all, I was incredibly happy with how easy the tutorial was to follow and how great my bag turned out!  This is definitely inspiration for me to start doing more of the projects from the book (some great gift ideas, for sure).  I can't wait to start bringing my new bag to class!

*Sings the Sparrow

On a slow boat to....

China!  I'm headed to Beijing, precisely, in T-Minus one and a half-something weeks.  (Okay, so maybe not that precise.)  It's crazy how fast it's all happening.  One minute I'm unemployed; the next minute I'm unemployed and going to China!  Or at least, I will be unemployed for the 3.5 weeks I'll be out of the country, which shall be interesting, considering how tight my budget is already.  At the same time, I'm not worried, and I know I'm doing exactly what I'm meant to be doing (at least for now).

Staying with my mom's sister and her immediate family, I am beyond excited to see my cousins again -- it's been over ten years.  My mom just informed me that one of my cousins has a piano in his photography studio.  Why?  I'm not really sure, because he doesn't play the piano, but for some reason, it immediately warmed my heart.  The comfort of a piano is the comfort of home.

So, naturally, these next coming weeks will be full of traveling updates from me and I'm clearing a bunch of storage in my iphone so I can take as many pictures as I can.  I contemplated bringing my DSLR but it would be just one more thing to worry about packing and subsequently losing on my flight across the world.  I'm all about packing as minimally as possible, if I can help it.  I'm also crossing my fingers that my cousin will show me around his studio and let me experiment with some of his expensive equipment.  

Also, my mom, who is as much of a clothes horse as I am, made me promise to come back with my suitcases full.  That translates to: pack lightly on your way there and make sure your aunt buys me new clothes that you can bring to me on your way back.

Will do, Mom.  Will do.