Road Trip

Do you remember going on family road trips when you were a kid?  Across the state or maybe even across the country.  Riding in the back seat surrounded by all kinds of car appropriate activities to keep you busy.  Fighting with your siblings because you were bored and your parents telling you not to make them pull the car over.  (Did they ever actually pull the car over?)  And asking them for the umpteenth time “Are we there yet?”  Stopping at all the sights along your destination route – giant redwood trees,  The Winchester Mystery House, the giant life size statue of Babe the Blue Ox.  Those are just a few from my childhood road trips.

Those road trips could be long and tiring but one of the best things about them was collecting souvenirs from the gift shops of the sites we stopped to see.

I see a lot of knitters and crocheters collecting enamel pins and displaying them on their  project bags and it reminds me of those souvenirs collected on family road trips.  There are some very talented pin makers out there and they can be fun to collect.  I don’t have a big collection but earlier this year my daughter went to Disneyland for her honeymoon and she brought me back an enamel pin of my favorite Disney princess – Merida from the movie Brave.   We can get into why she’s my favorite Disney princess in another blog post.

Anyway…

I wanted to display my pin on my project bag but I’m known for using fun whimsical fabrics in my bags.  So when I tried to find a bag to pin it on it just got lost in the fabric design.  Well, that’s no fun.  I wanted it to stand out, to be the center of attention.  (It really is a great pin.)  So I knew I was going to have to make a new bag for it.  It would have to be a solid color so as not to compete with the pin.  And I could add more pins.  Make a whole bag covered with enamel pins.  Oh, that would be fun!  But then that got me thinking about all those pin backs on the inside of my bag and the possibility of my yarn or worse, my project, getting caught on those pin backs.  What to do, what to do?

Create a whole new bag design of course.

One that could allow you to add your pins but keep the pin backs away from your yarn and your project.

Ta-da!

The Road Trip Bag.

This bag holds a secret but before I get to that let me tell you about all it’s other great features.  This bag is HUGE.  It measures ” 10″ wide x  6″ deep x 9.5″ tall.  It’s great for those family road trips because it fits easily in the seat next to you, it opens wide to give you easy access in confined spaces such as a car and it has an easy drawstring closure.  It also has a wrist strap for easy carrying.  There is an inside divided pocket for tucking in a pen, scissors and other small notions.

But the best thing about this bag is it has a secret opening so you can add all those cute enamel pins you’ve been collecting and not have to worry about the backs getting tangled in your project.

The inside lining has an opening that allows you access to the inside of the bag so you can reach in and attach pin backs and then close up the lining so there is nothing to get caught on your project.  Even though you are accessing the inside of the bag where you would usually find raw seams there are NO raw seams in this bag.  Everything is finished all nice and neat.  No ugly interfacing, no fraying fabric edges.  Nothing to distract from the cuteness of your pin collection.

The Road Trip Bag is made from a buttery soft cotton twill in solid colors so as not to distract from your lovely pin collection.  But since I am know for my cute whimsical bags I had to add a fun fabric for the lining.

These bags will be available in my shop this Saturday, January 13th, 2018 at 11:00 AM Pacific.  I will have 3 colors available – Cherry Red, Golden Honey and Royal Blue.  All perfect to show off that fun pin collection.

 

 

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