Happy Feet...and a New Bag!

My kids have a HUGE dancing obsession lately.   Lu mostly fuels this obsession...we've nicknamed her happy feet because she's literally dancing everywhere.  Not only does she dance everywhere...but she's so focused on her feet that she dances INTO everything.  My poor uncoordinated kid!  I think those uncoordinated genes come from me! 

Ellie is happily following along with her older sister's obsession, even if I do think that gymnastics probably suits her personality a whole lot better than ballet.  Ellie realized this past week though that she STILL didn't have a bag to keep her ballet shoes in (while Lu's had one for YEARS).  So yeah, I guess it was about time for me to throw a bag together for Ellie.  

 My little ballerina requested herself and a picture of a dancing dog on her ballet bag. So I sketched some out using a fabric marker and added some tulle for a skirt.  Leave it to my animal loving Ellie to want a dancing dog on her bag!  So silly! I just sewed around the edges of my bag fabric to secure it, and then it was as simple as making a draw string bag.

What I loved best about this bag though was that I literally threw it together in less than an hour...just in time for dance class.  

Keep reading below for the complete how to!

I cut out a large rectangle of my bag fabric and secured the ballerina embellishment to the front.  I then folded the bag fabric in half--with the right sides together--and folded over the top to make a passage way for the elastic. Sew along the folded edge to make the passageway.

  I folded over each of the edges (on the open side) to make a nice clean end for the drawstring to come out.

Then I sewed up the remaining side seam. 

Finally I used a safety pin to run the cording through the passage way that I created at the beginning.

Super easy, right?

Hope you all are having a great week!  It's Spring Break here, and I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with my girls.

XOXO,

Jill