A Bag for Maya

My beautiful niece, Maya, daughter of my close friends Lydia and Roberto, just turned 2 years old on May 28th!

I had the honor of being the first person to meet Maya, after her mom and dad and grandma- she was about 12 hours old. Hard to believe two years have gone by since then! She and her parents mean the world to me, but they moved from Oregon to Nebraska when Maya was a week old, so I have been a long-distance Auntie her whole life. Between visits and photos we manage to keep up just fine (the photo above is from Mama and Maya's visit to Portland in early March). She is a happy, busy little girl with a penchant for bags and purses, so for her 2nd birthday present, I made her this:

I didn't use a pattern, but based it generally on these bags by Soulemama. The floral print is actually from a button-down shirt that was in my rag bag. I embroidered that piece first, then sewed on the lining.

The lining is a very stout cotton, essential because the shirt fabric, though lovely, was worn very thin by the time it made it to the rag bag. I sewed on the handles before sewing up the final side seams of the bag (have you ever tried to do it the other way around? Such a pain.) I ended up hand sewing those two side seams, as they were just too thick for my machine to handle. With the seams and overlap from the lining in there, I think it was about 8 layers of fabric altogether. I am very pleased with it- it turned out very pretty, but I also made sure to make it sturdy, including double-sewing the handles to withstand the hijinks of a toddler.

After pressing the seams and cutting off all the loose threads, I put in some pretty clips and things for her lovely long hair, and it was sent off to Nebraska. Happy birthday, little one!

*Maya's photo and name were published with her parents' permission!*