Hydration is Important!

Hello there friends, how the heck are ya?!? Things are great over here, we finally had a lovely spring-like weekend so we all spent lots of time outside soaking it all up! We’ve also got a special guest, our Grand-puggie Prudence is here for a visit as her parents are off exploring the beautiful east coast of Canada!

Isn’t she a cutie….with a very dirty nose as she was snooting around in the dirt lol!

In between our outdoor play sessions, I decided to make a quick little “secret” project for my dear friend Kim! I know I’ve mentioned her to you before, and I’ve made her several things throughout the years and I’m sure I’ve shared them with you, one being this gorgeous bag that she still carries! I’m 99% sure she doesn’t read these blogs, probably cause I’ve never really told her I write them lol, so I’m not worried that the surprise will be ruined!

As you might guess, she loves purple, but she also loves butterflies so anytime we get a new butterfly print in the shop, I immediately think of her and all the things I could make for her with it! Well, I finally decided it was time to put my thoughts into action, all I needed to do was figure out which butterfly print to use and I’d be golden!

Kim is an amazing person for many reasons, but one thing about her is that she is always looking for ways to better herself, especially physically. She has had to overcome some pretty huge medical hurdles in her life and I think it’s because of that that she is always striving to be the best person/wife/mom/friend she can be, emotionally and physically! She loves to do yoga, even has a little area set up in her bedroom for it, but her other favourite physical activity to do is walking. She tries to walk every day, either by herself, with her husband or a friend, or her German Shepherd Grand-puppy. She walks all year round, outside whenever possible but inside on a walking track or at the mall works for her too!

All this walking she does gave me an idea of a project I could make for her….a water bottle holder! I honestly don’t know if she even takes water with her on her walks, but I hope she does, and if she doesn’t, well after I give her this, I hope that changes! And if she already does carry a bottle, now she’ll be able to go hands-free, which I know I enjoy when I’m walking!

I previously made myself a water bottle holder using the exact pattern I wanted to use for hers, the H2O 2GO Sling Pattern from Linds Handmade Designs!

This is a picture of the sling, which looks amazing….but I don’t make it the way it looks here! It’s a super popular pattern, and as often happens, some talented sewists will change things up in a pattern to better suit their needs, better known as “pattern hacks”, and those hacked versions appealed to me, especially when I heard that they made that front pocket, which is apparently quite tricky, super easy! I should probably try making it this way at some point, although I love the version I do so I’ll probably just keep doing that! Here’s the one I previously made for myself, which will show you the hacks I prefer:

The most notable difference is that front pocket…instead of it being a rounded, zippered compartment, this version has a slip pocket at the top that holds your phone and a smaller zippered pocket that is perfect for some cash, coins or debit cards, or anything you want to keep secured! The other part that isn’t so noticeable is that the original one has a rounded bottom and this one has a boxed bottom!

Lastly, the other thing I like to change up is the hardware…as in, way less hardware lol! I always like the idea of an adjustable strap but that usually means making it removable by using 2 d-rings, 2 swivel hooks and a strap slide, and all that adds quite a bit of weight to a bag that you don’t always want! In the bag I made the first time, I omitted one d-ring and one swivel hook by sewing the strap right into the seam. It’s not removable now but that’s not an issue for me. This time I went one step further and didn’t use any swivel hooks at all, so all I used for hardware was one rectangular ring and a strap slide! Once again, it’s not removable but I think that’s ok! I understand that if you have a removable strap, it makes it easy to wash the bag but truthfully, I still wash my bags in the washing machine, if they’re cotton, with the non-removable strap and they’re completely fine!

Finally, here’s the bag all finished and ready to be gifted, in all it’s glory!

I’m so excited to give this to Kim, I think she’ll absolutely love it! I ended up using Butterfly Stamps for the exterior and Good Vives Words in Purple for the lining. Making the boxed corners was a breeze using the Boxed Bag Template and where would I be without my amazing Glide thread lol?!? This time I used 3 different colours, Grape, Warm Grey 4 and Mermaid (Grape and Mermaid can be found in the Summer Collection and Warm Grey is from the Kimberbell Falling for Autumn pack!).

This is a great bag that can hold many different sizes of water bottles, or “other” kinds of bottles too, if you know what I mean lol! For the pictures I used my husband’s 32oz water bottle, and there was still room! I personally carry a 32oz Stanley and it will fit in there too, but another clever person has recently come up with a hack to make it suitable to use with the big 40oz ones with the handles too….some people are so smart!

Well that’s all for now friends, I’ll be seeing Kim in a few weeks so I’ll be surprising her with this then, I’ll definitely let you know her reaction, and maybe she’ll even model it for us, which I’ll share with her permission of course!

Until next time friends, I hope you are well and finding some time to do something just for you….we all deserve it! Cheers!

Shawna