Some very pink presents!

I've realised that since I've been pregnant and have stopped sewing clothes, I have solely been making gifts for other people. 

These cute pink handbags are birthday presents I made for my twin 4 year old nieces for their birthdays back in November. They are very girly girls and I thought it would be nice to have a handbag each!

The pattern comes from a book called Sew Sunny Homestyle by Finnanger Tone. What I particularly liked about the pattern is that the front of the handbag is made up of strips of scrap fabric sewn together. I decided on a pink theme, as I know my twin nieces love the colour and I had quite a lot of pink scraps left over from other projects. I added to this some pink gingham, for lining and the main body of the handbags and a small bit of pink heart ribbon from my local fabric shop. 

Both bags were made the same (to prevent any arguing!) and came together quickly. There was only one pattern piece for the front, back and lining and the handle is made from a rectangle so cutting out was simple, if a bit laborious. The front and back is lined with iron on wadding.

The construction was straight forward and quick as I was able to sew both bags at the same time. I am pleased with their professional finish. I'm glad I spent the extra time top stitching the fabric joins on the front of the bags, even though it meant switching cotton quite a bit. The only thing I change I made was to make the width of the bag slightly smaller. 

The girls really like their bags, which which I filled with hair clips and elastic bracelets. Perfect presents for 4 years old girls!

I'm currently on holiday in Spain, visiting relatives as it's half term week. I've bought some knitting with me so at some point soon, I will update you all with the details of my project and it's progress- turns out it's quite tricky to write a blog post on an iPad.