the finished bag, in recreational action - Portugal
Ciao beautiful Hive Friends!
The last week or so was a whirlwind: the first proper showing of my new collection, then the house tour and discussions around selling our beloved Arthouse, then a quick preparation for travel, and a day in the city (Napoli) which turned into a couple of hours because we were so overwhelmed by it, a short-ish flight to Porto in Portugal, then a bus and taxi adventure to the quinta of 
's sister....
between having finished the main body of the bag, and getting some handles on it
Then settling in here - a bit of a struggle to find peace, rest & nourishment in the family's unrhythm - and a shock with the state of our tent that we'd left with friends... Muddling along with a miniature make-shift tent, a blow-up mattress that did not stay filled, and mega-heat balancing with chilled foggy morning....
cutting and pinning the pieces for the body of the bag
Thankfully, we are pretty masterful at finding our own space, getting into nature, and making sure that we have access to what we need in each and every moment! And one of the things that was core to this week's success/survival, was this new bag that I made from scratch, for our journey 🙏🌟🤗
This (new favourite!) travel bag had to be made to specifications for carry-on (cabin) luggage, for our flight from Napoli to Porto. We had left our small suitcases in storage with friends in Portugal, and didn't think that a smaller bag would suffice, so with a few days to go I began taking apart an old parka jacket from the 50c stall...
The parka was a trendy thing which had rather a complex construction, which was a wee bit laborious to unpick the stitches of.
But I was super happy in anticipation of our trip.... and with the lovely fabric from first the soft green cotton coat, and then the very-used creamy canvas from an old pair of gardening trousers.
Both fabrics look - and are - very sturdy, but were unusually comfortable to sew into. I did a lot of hand-sewing with this bag, but got some of the longer seams under the sewing machine too - which was great, because we had a fair bit of (other) organising to do before leaving!
It was the most fabulous receptical to travel with; fitting everything that I/ we needed. And not being asked to put it into the suitcase-measuring device before boarding! I was quite confident in its super-correct 45 x 36 x 20 cm dimensions!
It's yet another one of these happy-making projects, that came together without much wrestling with fabric...
Each fabric piece was the right size, I found just the right attachments for the strap, and I even unpicked all the tight stitching on the parka zip to put it into the top of the bag - which pulled the whole thing together very nicely! I started with the idea of using an old cream zip, but the parka zip was a way better fit: all chunky and perfectly coloured.
adding the very final touch: my McMA label!
The bag is currently stowed away in the tent, as we discuss how to transport all our stuff to Italy: the first wave of it will come with us in the car next week.... road trip!!
