Treasure pocket

(Lucy and I looking for treasure at the pier in Bar Harbor, Maine.)

I finally made something crafty again...and I've been dying to show you! But we're on vacation with a lousy internet connection so it had to wait until today.

Lucy takes after me when it comes to picking up "treasures" on her journeys. Both of us stop frequently to pick up a special stone, an acorn, a feather, a stick... And just recently, Lucy discovered pockets. What a wonderful thing--a place to keep your treasures! But most of her clothes don't have any pockets. So I wanted to sew her a "pocket" she could wear at the beach (I knew we'd be doing lots of beach combing!)

Two days before we left--when I should have been packing or cleaning before our trip--I quickly sewed her a pocket. I used recycled linens for the bag (pinky-red ticking for the outside; orange and pink paisley for the lining) and a scrap of lace from an old pillowcase for the edging. The luckiest accident was the strap; I'd wanted something wide so the weight wouldn't dig into her shoulder, and when I sewed on this wide twill tape to this tiny bag, it made the bag stay open when hanging on her shoulder--perfect for a little hand to reach in easily.


Lucy loves it! Now if I ask her "do you want to look for treasures on the beach?" She says "Yeah. Poc" (pocket) and puts her hand down where her pocket should be.

(The best picture I got of the inside, as she's always on the go!)

(Looking for the perfect rock.)

(Tucking something into her pocket for safekeeping.)

(A collection of her treasures.)

I really can't imagine anything quite so wonderful as sharing this passion of mine with my equally passionate daughter. Now...what am I doing writing?? There's beachcombing to be done!

Because something is better than nothing

Since the day she blogged about it back in August, I've been meaning to make Soulemama's handkerchief bag. I loved what she said about crafting utilitarian objects and making ordinary things just a bit nicer. And it made me see a way to use all those vintage handkerchiefs I'd collected "just because." Really, they've only every dabbed a tear here and there or cleaned the rain off my glasses; I keep one in my purse because they're pretty, but I don't use them, because I'm a bit squeamish about the idea of blowing my nose on a hankie and then using it again. A soggy mass in my purse? No thanks. But hankie use at home, now that I can see. Use it, toss it in the laundry. We use a crazy number of tissues here (6 kids every day, bringing germs from all their houses, equals a lot of runny noses!). I buy the environmentally horrible kind--it's one of my hypocritical shopping habits--because they're so much kinder on the nose. But oh, boy, do they pile up! I'd guess they're most of our trash. And the dust they create! Seems every surface is covered with white powdery dust. So, the handkerchief bag seemed like it would solve many problems at once, as well as simply being pretty!

But it got added to that list of things I want to make but never get to. And the hankies sat in a closet, unused. And the tissues kept piling up. Now really, how dumb is that? Don't do it, because you can't do it oh-so-bloggy-beautifully? One day, disgusted with myself, I just grabbed an old rice bag, stuffed in the hankies, and hung it on the doorknob. Done. I still plan to make the beautiful one, one of these days. But now I'm not waiting to do it until I can do it perfectly.

I'd also planned to add to my collection at tag sales this summer. But why wait, when I have way-too-many baby washcloths in the house? The extras are in there, too, and they're just as soft on the nose as the decadent tissues. And there are also some super-soft new hankies that were a gift from a friend.

The tissues aren't gone, of course. We're using the hankie bag just for the family; the kids and other visitors get tissues. But we're using far less. And isn't that better than doing nothing?

What have you been waiting to do until you could do it "right"? Is there a good-enough way to get started now?
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(We've been outside this weekend, of course. Forgot the camera each time! Will resume Great Outdoor Challenge photos tomorrow.)