My Tropical Dance Bag

I've been into all things tropical lately and when I saw this roll of fabric strips with pineapples, flamingos and palm fronds, I had to buy it and sew something for myself.



I decided to go with a dance bag as I've been transporting my tap shoes to and from class in their shoe box.  After investing in tap shoes, I'd like to keep them nice.



Originally, I was going to sew all the strips together but my mom said she'd seen a video on YouTube of someone making a bag a different way so I poked around and found the quilt-as-you-go method.  Basically, you sew the strips together directly onto the batting.



I quickly renamed this the mess-up-as-you-go method.  To start, I made an amateur mistake by sewing the first two strips to the batting without checking that the one I was going to fold over was long enough to extend past the batting.  It wasn't.  Seam rip.  The next mistake was a factor of too much swimming around in my head.  I had lined up all the strips in the order I wanted but picked up the wrong one and sewed it on.  Seam rip.  I almost made that mistake again.  After that, all was good.  It's actually a pretty easy way to quilt.

Here's an example of how it works.  You sew the next strip on top of one already there.  That's the reverse side of the flamingo fabric facing up.



Then you flip that strip over and iron.  (This is pre-ironed.)



I found this pineapple fabric for the inside.  I also lined the inside with pockets.  Currently, Allie has class before mine so I like to bring my kindle with me in case the other moms aren't there to chat.  I also find myself hangry right before my class and I've learned (the hard way) that sometimes one little granola bar won't cut it.  So I need snacks.  And then there's the usual stuff I always carry with me (wallet, phone, keys, lip balm and hand lotion.)



When I finished and showed it to the girls, they asked why it was so big.  I used the same measurements as Allie's dance bag but, yes, I only have one pair of shoes.  Presumably, hopefully, one day, I won't have to wear a winter jacket and this gives me space to store a fleece or hoodie.