My New Book

I'm going to write a book.  I am going to name it "What The * Was I Thinking?" or WT*WIT for short.  In the first chapter of my new book, I decide that for Christmas it will be fun to make a cute little scripture bag for all the little kids at church.  

OK, so let's set the scene.  It's October, and the leaders of Primary are discussing how we can get the kids to use their scriptures more often.  We take a poll of hands in the classroom, and there are A LOT of kids that don't even have scriptures.  I'm thinking that's just fine, because half of them can't read anyway.  The Primary President tells me that she thinks all of the children should have them, even the non-readers.  Her rationale is that it will help them get used to carrying them around at a young age so it will eventually become a habit.  I hadn't even considered that the little bitty kids should have them, or that they would even want to carry around a book they couldn't read.  So I tested her theory on Jack.   I gave him a set of inexpensive paperback scriptures and told him to take them to church.  He was REALLY excited!  He took them to church that first Sunday after I gave them to him, and brought them home with a ripped page and a bent cover.  I asked him what happened and he told me that they accidentally got stepped on.    And THEN he said…

"I wish I had a bag to carry them in."

Easy, I thought.  I will whip you up one real quick-like.

So I did.  About an hour later I gave him a really cute little reversible tote bag.  Monster trucks on the outside, and green (his favorite color) polka dots on the inside.  

He was REALLY excited.  And wouldn't you know it, he started taking his scriptures to church.  He pulls them out when everybody else does, and he never forgets them.  Even though he can't read, he pretends like he can.  He loves them.

And then, I did it.  Ugh.

The Primary President wanted to gift each of the children a Book of Mormon for Christmas, and all of the sudden it just came flying out of my mouth.

"I want to make a scripture bag for ALL the little children!"

And there it was.  And it sounded like a good idea at the time.  I figured an hour a bag, a few bags a week and I would be done in plenty of time for Christmas.  And that theory was spot-on.

Spot-on IF I would have actually started back in October.  But I did not.  I procrastinated, and then I FORGOT.  Long around Thanksgiving one of the leaders asked me how the project was going, and then it all came back to me.  I had completely forgotten.  And suddenly now I was going to have to hurry.  

I panicked.  I solicited for fabric from the other ladies at church.  Luckily, and after begging a few times, I had enough fabric donations to get the job done.  

And I sewed.  And cut, and pinned, and sewed, and ironed.  Over and over and over again.  Until finally, three days before I had planned to have them finished, I finally finished.

58 little bags, for 58 little people.

I had plenty of fabric donated that could be used for girls bags.  And although I hadn't ever noticed before, we don't have very many girls at our church.  Only 18 of the 58 bags are for girls.

I decided to make all the girls bags nearly the same.  Some of them have green lining, and some have pink lining, but the outside fabric is all the same.  My rationale was simple.  They are girls.  They will argue over the patterns, they will want the bag that another girl has just to be difficult.  So this takes that tragedy right out of the equation.  They all get the same bag.  I also made the girls bags a little bigger than the boys.  Again, just because they are girls.  Girls like to put random crap in their bags.  Pens, highlighters, lip gloss or chapstick, a comb, a note, stickers, blah blah blah blah.  You get the idea.  

The boys were a little more difficult.  A lot more difficult, actually.  When I solicited for fabric donations, I got a whole bunch of girl-appropriate fabric, and very little for boys.  I had to beg and plead for the sisters at my church to go through their stashes and try to find ANYTHING, just ANYTHING that I could use for the boys.  Most women just don't sew things for boys, and I totally understand that.  Boys homemade clothes look homemade, whereas girls look adorable and cute.  

It all worked out in the end.  There are lots of different choices.  I don't figure the boys will argue about what pattern they get.  I tested this theory out on both Justice and Jack.

Me:  "HEY!  Come here for a second… What bag do you want?"

Justice:  "I couldn't care less.  Any is fine."

Jack:  "I'm busy MOM, just pick me one.  I don't care what it is!".

BAM.  Theory is correct.

One of the ladies gave me some Boy Scout fabric.  Those ought to be a popular choice.

This one is my personal favorite.  Mickey Mouse and black polka dots.  

I started to run out of fabric towards the end and had to make a couple of random patterns out of scraps on hand.

And that's the end of that.  I am pleased with the whole project.  The fact that I've been hunkered down over a sewing machine non-stop for the past week is nobody's fault but my own considering I planned to do this all the way back in October.  

I'd like to say I learned a valuable lesson from this experience, but I know myself better than that.  

Unfortunately, I can guarantee there will be lots more chapters in this book.