Dinosaur Loot Bags

My eldest turns 7 tomorrow, and a couple of years ago she decided she wanted to become a palaeontologist when she grows up.  The Museum of Nature here in Ottawa offers parties and one of them just happens to be dinosaur-themed so it seemed a perfect (if expensive) fit.  But we're not doing it at home, yay!

This year, I also decided not to buy any dollar store *cough* crap for loot bags: we're giving each kid a 4D Dinosaur Puzzle from Tedco toys and one of these lovely themey-but-not-too-themey (I hope) pencil cases.

I tried the Perfect Box Tutorial at Make it Modern but although it's well written and easy to follow, I decided I couldn't live with unfinished seams inside.   So in the end, I used the Fully Lined Zippered Box Pouch tutorial over at It's a Pretty Modern Life again.  It's a great tutorial -- the only  thing I would suggest is basting the tabs on to the bag before stitching up the bottom edges.  It would be easier than trying to make them line up while stitching up the sides and keeping the lining out of the way.  Of course this piece of insight came to me after I had already stitched up 8 of the bottoms ;). 

The main fabric is Rex Twill from fabric.com.  It's a medium weight twill and is actually quite soft.  I was worried that with the large scale of this print, the dinosaurs would end up stuck in seams and corners but it actually worked out pretty well -- with no fussy cutting!  The print repeats in lines 8 1/2" apart so I cut my pieces to 8 1/2" x 11" and still used 12" zippers (I think the tutorial called for pieces 7" x 10" but the larger size was fine).  

I used grey Kona cotton for the lining and interfaced them with quilt batting so they're lovely and squishy.  I used twill tape for the tabs/handles because making them would have put me over the edge, I think :).  

The icing on the top (for me anyway) are the colourful zippers.   I told J. I don't really want to her to give them away as I just want to line them up and look at them ;).  I got the zippers from zipit  on etsy.  That shop is obviously run by someone who loves colour and has a sense of humour -- included in the the package was a fortune telling fish, which fascinated my kids.  (And a free kaleidoscope zipper pull, fun!). 

Kudos to those who sew for a living -- although surprisingly enough, I did enjoy the relative mindlessness of putting these together assembly-line style (especially the magic of finishing the last step and having 9 completed bags!!), I don't think I would have the stamina to do it regularly.

And, yes, I will let my daughter give them away :)