For Annabel

Jane's friend Annabel had her birthday party this weekend.  On Saturday morning, Jane and I set about making her present.

This fabric that I bought from Leslie is a lightweight canvas, perfect for a tote.  Jane and I thought that Annabel might need a bag to carry her ballet stuff in, or to fill with things to do while waiting at rehearsal for The Nutcracker.  Jane wanted to embroider ballet slippers or something dance related on the pocket, but crazy enough, we didn't have the right thing.  She settled on Annabel's initials.

Jane drew the letters on the polka dot fabric with a pencil and embroidered them herself while I was cutting out the bag and making the handles.  When she was finished stitching, I made the pocket and sewed it all together.

Inside, we put a sweet bundle of embroidery supplies:  hoop, needles, lots of floss, three fat quarters of fabric and Hillary's Peppermint Fairy Stitchettes.  I told her mother, who shares her daughter's birthday, that she was going to love me or hate me.  I know from experience that this requires lots of adult supervision and help.  I think Suzanne was just fine with it - after all, she's one of my craft swap peeps.

Happy Birthday friends!