Not without a Trader Joe's Guy!

I've been incredibly productive over the past week. I have had loads of long term projects on my mental to-do list for months and I finally got around to a few of them. The first of these was sewing up a new messenger bag.


Almost two years ago I took a sewing class with Melissa and neighbor Pete at Valley Fabrics (which is sadly closing it's doors at the end of June). The project was a simple messenger bag. I made a lovely orange, green and teal bag that I gave to my sister that Christmas. Immediately after the class I bought this heavy cotton fabric at Ikea intending to make another bag for me. The fabric sat and sat until I finally pulled it out of the depths of the closet a couple of weeks ago and cut out all of the bag pieces. Last Monday night I needed to hem some curtains (also bought at Ikea many months ago - another long delayed project...) and, since I had the machine out, sewed up the bag.


The bag is super simple, but I am not much of a sewer. I wont invite anyone to look closely at the seams on this, but I think it came out quite well. The fabric is nice and heavy and holds the shape of the bag quite well. And it's reversible!


Tina took these photos today in Trader Joe's in Hadley. One of the clerks saw what we were doing and ran over saying, 'Wait, you can't take pictures without a Trader Joe's Guy!'

If you look close at these photos, you can see Traci behind me looking at soup (with the checkered bag) and if you look in the lower right of the photo with the Trade Joe's Guy you can see Audrey in the bottom rack of the cart. Not sure what's she's doing there. Probably being bored waiting for the best part of Trader Joe's - when they give you a balloon (in your favorite color) at the check out counter.