It is late August and I finally finished my high school graduation presents (only two months behind schedule!). I am now trying to distribute them before the excellent graduates head off to college. This year my great idea was to make the girls a messenger style book bag with a favorite inspiring book inside. Unfortunately, my ideas always take much longer than I anticipate!
I started perusing the Internet for bag ideas and came across some great sewing/ crafting blogs. Made by Rae had an adorable pattern for a buttercup purse, ikketikketheo had lots of inspiring ideas, between the lines had a lot of fun projects and a great ruffled messenger bag, Think Liz also has fabulous sewing patterns – I love her Diana Hobo purse. I ended up making my messenger bags with a pattern I found on mmmcrafts. The directions were super easy to follow and all four bags turned out just right.
Lately, I’ve been really intrigued by Islamic geometric patterns and symbols. I love the boldness and symmetry of them. I thought the evil eye would be an appropriate symbol for a college girl’s book bag to help ward off evil boys. Hence, the evil eye messenger bag. If you want to make one yourself, check out the tutorial on mmmcrafts and here is the evil eye pattern. To make the evil eye, I cut out the large tear drop shape in aqua and the circle in red. I backed them each with light iron on interfacing. I sewed the circle onto the drop shape with a tight zigzag stitch. I then sewed the drop shape on the the bag flap with the same zigzag stitch. I found a little black button for the pupil amongst all of my possessions.
Now, onto the books to inspire young women graduates. In my bags I put Jill Ker Conway’s autobiographies, The Road from Coorain and True North. Truly inspirational. My friend, Bobbi likes Beryl Markham’s memoir West with the Night for her inspirational read. My friend, Lori,the mistress of science, suggests Dr. Seuss’ Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Let me know your suggestions and I’ll add them to the list.
Books to give girl high school graduates:
- The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway
- True North by Jill Ker Conway
- West with the Night by Beryl Markham
- Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
really cute, ArchitectMom! I especially like the idea of the Dr. Seuss book–the right amount of whimsy with the right message. Thanks for the idea! 🙂
I’m sending Paige hers tomorrow!
I’m reading”The Flame Trees of Thika” based on our conversation about “West With the Night” and loving it!! Must make it to Africa someday.
And I’m re-reading “West with the Night” as we speak and loving it!