The start of February

Well hello! Another mad week at work; you do not know how much I'm looking forward to half term (even if I only have a couple of days off)!

Helped a friend with her GCSE textiles today. She'd done a bag - very nicely too - but it wasn't enough to satisfy the Geography teacher. Yes, that's right folks; her textile's teacher's main subject is Geography and this is a sideline. S she decided to create a flex frame purse

I'm sorely tempted at this point to have a little rant about teachers and their subjects. Hey, I teach ICT and could probably do a reasonable job teaching textiles, so I'm not suggesting people can't diversify. But having been through this with my daughter and now her friend (who's slightly younger), I get tad frustrated seeing young people having the stuffing and enthusiasm knocked out of them.

OK, rant over!

Said daughter came to me yesterday. 'Mum, I'd like a new bag. All the ones in the shops are a bit big; I'd like a saddle bag style, just big enough for my purse, phone and a bottle of water. Oh, and my passport, because I could use it when I go to Berlin. Oh, and a cover for my passport would be cool'.

Berlin is her History trip. She leaves Tuesday. Hmmm. So here is the Berlin bag:

There's a slip pocket at the front to put the passport. Sadly, said passport is currently naked, as my sewing machine thought it would be a good idea to stop working just before the bag was complete. I'm so lucky to have a reserve machine; when I bought my singing and dancing machine, I kept the old one for the daughter to use.

Phew!