A Boy, a Bag, and a Violin

Dapper Dude had been asking for a messenger bag for too long.
I finished it on Christmas Eve.
Actually, it wasn't quite finished. I left the strap undone on one side to adjust it for him.

The denim came from a jumper dress and the ship-in-a-bottle fabric was from the great Mother's Day Yard Sale Haul of 2008. Already dirty, I see.
The thread doodling, that was the most fun part of all.
Just load up your thread and randomly stitch. I used my left hand to guide the fabric and my right to sporadically hit the reverse lever. Or I held the fabric with both hands and did some random zigging and zagging.
I used white, red, and light blue thread without ever changing the bobbin (that part hides in between layers anyway). I kept the thread going in a mostly horizontal direction and then added one diagonal. Look, it's already laden with dog hair.
This was a special request and a necessity for violin lessons - his multiple books were getting out of hand and unlike The Fashionista, his violin case is not equipped with a pocket.

Speaking of violin, Dapper Dude has been struggling to enjoy the work. I would love to put him in a semi-local homeschool choir program but it's just not possible right now. We're thankful just to be able to have these violin lessons.

Recently, a friend, another homeschooling mom with multiple violin students, asked me if I was interested in starting a small orchestra for the kids with a teacher who ran an entire public school music program for years. Well sure! We're going into out fourth practice and have five violin students ranging in level from second-year students to a young violinist who already play in the local symphony orchestra; and we also have one young pianist. I'm hoping this will be just the thing to spark a new love of violin in Dapper Dude. I can't wait till they play at a rest home. Or our church!