End of the year Teacher gift

Bekah's last day of pre-school was May 18 and I wanted to do something really special for her two teachers. They also taught Hannah last year so we've gotten to know them really well. I've seen lots of ideas for tote bags with beach supplies for teachers and decided to do my own version. I also wanted to do a personalized bag. The amazing hubby got me a brand spanking new sewing machine for mother's day (EEK! :o) ). So I knew I needed to take that baby for a test spin. I got some canvas bags from Michaels and went to town. 


First i painted a stenciled B using the freezer paper method onto each bag. Luckily Han's teacher's last name starts with the same letter as Bekah's two teachers first names. So I only needed one letter. 

Next I added some fabric ruffles from some really sweet fabric scraps I picked up in the clearance bin at JoAnns (1.00/ fat quarter bundle... score!). There are a million and one ways to make ruffles, but I love this tutorial from Positively Splendid. The tricky part was that i had to open up the seam of the bag, sew the ruffles on and then resew the seam closed. It wasn't difficult, but definitely took longer than I'd anticipated.

Then I filled the bags with lots of goodies for a fun time in the sun and added a little sunshine tag. 

Making the ruffles was the most time consuming part of this project, but i loved how they turned out! The lighting is terrible in these pics, but I really wish you could see how cute that fabric is! Oh well... maybe for my bday the amazing hubby will get me a new camera... A girl can dream right? :o)