DIY Travel Toiletry Bag
Hubby and I started dating Valentine’s Day our junior year of high school, and somehow, 14 years later, we still manage to give each other sweet gifts for this “anniversary”, even though we have a new anniversary (woohoo Pi Day!) and Valentine’s day is a bit of a materialistic holiday. I love getting his thoughtful gifts each year, but the pressure is always on for giving something worthwhile, and not just something that’ll do. It’s gotta be good - useful, something he actually needs. I love my stuff, and so does he, but stuff for stuff’s sake is no good. That has made gift giving HARD. How do you keep giving meaningful, useful gifts for FOURTEEN years??
Well, luckily, he’s been using the same travel bag for toiletries for forever, and it’s finally falling apart, so I decided to sew him a new one. I found some great, nerdy Star Trek fabric on Spoonflower, got it in the Linen Cotton Canvas, and followed a quick tutorial by Melly Sews, which even has a YouTube video to watch if you’re into videos.
I decided to make his bag slightly smaller (14” pieces instead of 16”, based on how big his old bag is), and I skipped the stabilizer since I was using pretty thick fabric for both the outer and the lining, but otherwise I followed her instructions to a T. This is a great, inexpensive project for a gift for anyone regardless of their gender. This could be a great way to de-stash your fabric remnants as the biggest pieces you need are only 10”x16”. You could mix and match the outer fabrics and handle, too, for all sorts of fun looks.
I’m not sure what I’ll come up with next year, but the great thing about being a sewist is that handmade gifts are always special and unique in one way or another. And I’m always up for suggestions if anyone has some brilliant ideas for gifts for your significant other 😉
