An early birthday present

My nieces, Kuyana and Kuyasmin, together with their 3 other siblings and mum had just left for Mecca this afternoon to perform their umrah. I pray for their safe journey to and from Mecca.

I have been working on Kuyasmin's purple bag for the past two months, putting it down several times, and not working on it for weeks, when I got distracted by so many other crafts that I wanted to do. *grin* So, what is new, huh? LOL! *wink*

When my mum told me two weeks ago that they will all be leaving for Mecca during the school holidays, I just had to force myself to pick it up to complete it, even though Kuyasmin's birthday isn't until the 28th of August. I had been procrastinating for far too long. Now, I have no other excuse not to complete it, and I do need to complete it because for as long as the bag is not completed, it will be hanging over my head.

So, last weekend, despite being busy with my cousin's daughter's wedding, I sat down for two hours to put the bag together. I completed it on Saturday night, but I could not find where I had placed the button that I had bought earlier. I thought that I would drop by EVERGREEN at SS14 Subang Jaya on Monday evening after work to get a new set of buttons, but other more important matters arised, and I had to abandon my plan to drop by EVERGREEN as I left the office too late to get there before it closed at 7.00pm.

So, I went home and rummaged through my button collection and came up with this huge button which was just perfect for the bag. Sometimes it is good to have accumulated a lot of stash. You never know when you might need it! LOL! *wink*

Anyway, I put in the last touch to the bag at 11.00pm on Monday night, and presented Kuyasmin the bag after dinner at my house on Tuesday night.

It's actually a simple bag, but I hope that Kuyasmin will still like it and be able to use it for a long time to come. I am more confident of it lasting long as I had double crocheted the sides of the bag. I wanted to sew in a lining, but ran out of time, but, for as long as she does not put in any sharp objects, the bag should be able to carry all her other knicks and knacks that any 10 year old girl would.

As for Kuyana's bag, she being in her preteen years, instead of crocheting her a bag in pink, I decided to sew her a bag instead. I found this lovely flowery cotton among my stash which I had bought during my early years of doing patchwork. I added ruffles at the bottom half of the bag which I think gave the bag the pre-teen look. If I may say so myself, I think the bag is sweet! *wink*

This being a reversible bag, I had chosen a very childish motif (teddy bears, bunnies and cats) cotton for the reversible side of the bag. I thought that whenever Kuyana decides that she is in a childish mood (she can be very adult most times despite her young age), she can always reverse the bag. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the reverse side. *sigh*

The photos show the front and back of the bag, but no photos of the reverse side of the bag.

I hope both my nieces will enjoy using their bags for as long as the bag can last, which I hope will be for a very long time.