I try to make all of my Christmas gifts. Just like buying gifts, it can be hard to find just the right gift to make. I try to create or choose a gift that is something special just for the recipient. Some years I have made the same thing for everyone, such as pajama pants with fabric picked to fit each person’s personality. Another year I made soft socks for everyone in their favorite color. This year I made each person something different, which is always harder. But you will see that I tried to fit the gift to the person. Not everyone received a homemade gift, but here’s an example of one I made, a custom dragon bag.
My five-year-old grandson asked me if I would make him a purse. Having three sisters I think he felt left out. They all had purses to carry around with them so he wanted one too. I told him that girls have purses and boys have bags. He thought for a moment and then told me that he wanted a bag then. I asked him what kind of bag he wanted and he said a dragon bag.
So I was on the hunt for a dragon bag pattern. His mom gave me some pointers: it needed to be big enough to hold items like books and snacks on a car trip, with plenty of pockets for treasures. After some searching I decided on a simple messenger bag with a dragon added the front. I searched the web for a simple drawing of a dragon head, finally finding jut the right drawing as well as the right fabric.
I decided to make the dragon head three-dimensional. First I put the head together before applying it to the flap of a simple messenger bag. It’s made so the mouth opened and contains a coin purse in the thong. Didn’t it turn out so cute?
It was my first Christmas gift and it took way too long! It was supposed to be just simple and fast. Not so! It was very time-consuming between cutting all the pieces, using Wonder-Under to iron the pieces to the head, sewing around them, planning and figuring out how to do what I wanted. When you make your own pattern it always takes a little longer because you have work out how to do each step.
Just look at the smile on this grandson’s face and it was all worth it. He takes it every where; so happy to have his very own dragon man bag.
Happy sewing,
JoLene
Adorable bag!