A Storytelling Bag

Work has had me busier than I’d like, which means my sewing machine has been gathering dust. I dusted it off this weekend to make a little bag as part of my mission to give my girls more storytelling practice.

More storytelling practice should make learning to read easier. I found an excellent book on Amazon – Show Me A Story by Emily Neuburger – that is filled with great storytelling ideas.

One of the ideas is to use photos as prompts for stories. I clipped photos from old magazines, glued them to card stock and laminated them.

I thought a patchwork bag would be a nice way to hold the photos and make it easy to bring on trips. To save time, I used this mini charm pack from the Airmail collection by the Comstocks.

I used the tutorial on In Color Order to make a patchwork version of the lined drawstring bag. In case you are interested in doing something similar, I used 30 mini charms. I stitched two 3 by 5 patchwork units and a center accent piece that was 5.5″ x 10.5″ to make the main exterior sections. For the accent pieces, I used Essex linen in black. For extra stability, I added interfacing to the main exterior sections.

Thanks to the great tutorial, the bag came together quickly.

The drawstring is perfect for making sure we don’t lose any photos, while being easy for little hands to open and close.

The bag holds all the photos and has plenty of room for digging around in and holding more photos.

I am thrilled with how the bag turned out and even more thrilled that the kids are already starting to tell stories.

Mission accomplished!