Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman (And WIP Wednesday #3)

 (Linking to these parties)

So, I have twin 3-year-old boys.  They love Spiderman. 

LOVE. SPIDERMAN.

And one of my sons in particular loves to put things inside another thing and carry said things around.  And it doesn't matter what the carrying object is...a bucket, a bag, a sock...really it doesn't matter.

And then there is the matter of church. 

In our church, the main meeting is attended by the whole family (i.e: no nursery), and lasts for 70 minutes, give or take.  Obviously, as the mom of three little ones, I have learned that distractions are necessary.  But because of that, I have ended up loading my own bag with flip books, cards, dominoes, sparkle pom poms, coloring books, etc.

My shoulders ache by the end of church after hauling all the boys booty around, besides my own books and binders.

So I thought, "Hey, they are THREE WHOLE YEARS OLD now.  How about making them their own tote bags to carry their own stuff around in?"  Genius, I know.

And that is how the Spiderman Totes came to be.

I used the tutorial for the Market Tote found HERE.

I made the blue one first, and while it came together very easily, there were a few things I did differently on the second, red one, some intentionally, and others not so intentionally.

First thing I did differently, was trim the seam allowance for the liner before assembling the bag so that it wasn't quite so bulky.  I could feel the untrimmed liner seams on the inside of the blue one and it bothered me.

Second thing I did a little different was I used a slightly heavier weight interfacing on the red one.  This change was the unintentional one (I ran out of interfacing and bought more at a different store which didn't have the exact same interfacing I had been using), but I have to say, I actually ended up preferring it this way. 

You can't really tell in the photo, but the red tote stands up fairly well on its own, whereas the blue one is relatively soft and doesn't stand up quite so well.  I know that will all change anyway, once the boys get their hands on them and mush the whole bag to pieces, but based on the pristine, untouched finish, I prefer the heavier weight interfacing.

The only other thing I did differently was cut 2 inches off (in both directions) the original measurements.  I wanted them to be smaller, since they were for 3-year-olds.  However, they STILL ended up being a bit large.  I knew I wanted them big enough to carry coloring books plus other stuff, but I didn't really take into consideration the depth of the sides when I was reducing the pattern.  If I make them again for little people, I will probably take off 4 inches.

I can say, however, that the twins are quite pleased.  I just finished the second one this morning and already that they have been filled to the brim with golf balls, trucks, cars, Buzz and Woody. 

So I can cross this project off my list.  YAY!

And I decided to take my Christmas Tree Skirt with me on my trip to Tennessee/Utah next week to have something to do, so that is on hold for a week.

WIP Stats
WIP's Finished - 1
WIP's Worked On - 1
New WIP's - 0
TOTAL WIP's - 5