Super Tote for a Super Me!

I'm directing this post at all you mums out there.

I know that's marginalizing the rest of you but someone needs to say this.

We are SUPER.

All of you who stay up in the night to watch over a poorly child, then end up sharing your bed with another. Then spend the next day fueled by caffeine and the knowledge it is your sole responsibility to get food into the house and onto the plate of said offspring, whilst also holding down a job, maybe even two and at the end of it trying to find a little time for something that makes you happy and feel like a person. You are the super mums, all of you. It may seem a little big headed to say this but its the truth and we are all to often too hard on ourselves, so here's a little reminder.

I'm reminding myself in a very literal way, see I may have booked a little treat for myself as a reward for all the hard work i've been doing of late. And this treat means travelling and a couple of nights away, which we all know means I need a new bag! Enter the Noodlehead Super Tote. I just love Anna's patterns, they are simultaneously simple and stylish and so well written. They come together really well and are a delight to sew rather than a chore. I had planned on making a weekender for this trip but actually I wanted a fun sew and the weekender was irritating me before I'd even cut the fabric so I cast it aside! I am so glad I did.

I used very special fabric for this one, a vintage wool skirt id been saving forever for the right project (50 pence in a charity shop years ago) a FQ of Hello Pilgrim for the outside pocket and also for the inner pockets, my only ones but actually as painful as it is to use such precious fabric its so nice to see it every day on your bag (quilt, pouch etc) than occasionally in your stash.

I used an Orla Kiely dust bag for lining the inside and the inside pocket, another 50 pence bargain at a garage sale.

You might also notice a bit of a gold thing going on here, I'm getting a little obsessed by metallic at the moment. I can't tell you which was more of a bugger to sew, the slippery yet somehow sticky gold piping or the tangley and awkward gold stitching on the handles (which I opted to sew after id put the bag together with my hand up through the turning hole in the lining because I didn't want my stitches showing on the inside of the bag) But I can tell you it was worth it.



So there you have it, a Super Tote to remind me that I am (even if only occasionally) super too!

Oh and yay me, here is my latest knitting finish, a Hitchhiker shawl. I think my best achievement this year is learning to knit, finally. I am so pleased I got it after many attempts at learning, at last!

I am off to referee the half term shenanigans with the children and somehow find time to turn this into a birthday present for the youngest by Thursday, whilst she is not looking of course!