Soccer Bags

It's official . . . I've turned in to a "soccer mom". Hopefully not the stereotypical one but rather one that enjoys watching her son(s) play sports for the fun of it . . . and doesn't over think the coach's choices and number of minutes played and boo the referees, etc. Today was son #1's first team practice. He did G R E A T! Knowing that today was looming, I wanted to make something soccer related just for him. I've seen Noodleheads' great tutorial on Drawstring Backpacks and decided to make a soccer bag for my little man. I changed it up just a little bit - I used all soccer fabrics and since I have the luxury of a grommet tool I added grommets in the bottom corners instead of using tabs to hold the cording.The zippered compartment in the bottom section of the bag exterior is pure genius! I have no idea what we'll actually put in here for soccer purposes, but for me it's all about the "cuteness factor"! I think I have to search around for a fun soccer zipper pull just to add another point of interest.Since I still had some leftover black oilcloth laying around from my hair clipper boxy bag, I decided to line his bag with it - - - whatever stinky socks or grassy shoes get thrown in won't damage it at all. Since most of the sewing for the lining is on the wrong side of the oilcloth, it sews like a charm.

And then today while sitting in a day-long meeting, I started feeling bad for son #2 who wants desperately to play soccer like his big brother. It's already going to be hard enough for him to sit on the sidelines and watch big brother play. Maybe he needed his very own soccer bag to put his little ball and water bottle and snacks in to take practices and games. Besides, he'll be playing on a team within the next 2 years. Of course, I always buy too much fabric which means there were plenty of leftovers. So I hurried home and grabbed my mat and rotary cutter and decided just to make this a simple, easy bag -no zipper pocket, no oilcloth lining. It did have to be "cute" so I patched together a few pieces to make the front interesting instead of plain.
And it literally worked up in all of about 15 minutes. I didn't have a long enough piece of leftover cording so I'll have to zip by a store later this week to grab another piece. But it worked for him today and he loved it . . . and he didn't feel left out. That makes my heart happy!