Ellie Bag

I've picked up a little momentum in the crafting department.  The girls are going to bed just a tad bit earlier than they used to.  Well, the older one is going to bed earlier.  She's stopped napping and we were able to drastically shift bedtime when daylight savings time hit.  Yay!  Not that I've taken full advantage of the extra hour, but I hope to in the near future.  

Anyway, my niece's birthday is coming up in a few days and, as per usual, the gift will be late.  At least it was finished before her birthday this year!  

I made the Ellie Bag from the Wee Wonderfuls book.  This came together super quickly.  That's always a nice thing.  Those topsy turvy dolls were also from this book.  I can't remember if I've made anything else from it. 

The head lifts up to reveal a secret neck/stomach cavity for storing very tiny things.

It's not super tiny and the hole is bigger than this photo, but I was trying to be stealth and not get my man hands in the photo.

Here's her little face:

I couldn't figure out how to neatly tie a bow on the purple ribbon (man hands, again), so I embellished with little sequins that will probably fall off in transit.  Oh well.  She will just be like  an Ellie Newton John Bag then.

The back:

Modifications to the pattern instructions:  They wanted me to sew the strap in that little ear fold/pleat, but that did not seem like a structurally sound place to put straps, so I sewed them to the head and tacked the ears down after that.  I also made my own strap because my kid had a meltdown which prevented me from going out to buy a long enough ribbon, so that saved me $3.00 or so, I guess.  I also added fusible fleece to the ears, because I thought they were going to be too floppity.