farewell, abigail!

abigail, a wonderful friend from work, is off to grad school to pursue an mfa in creative writing and poetry! we had a farewell party last thursday to celebrate her wonderfulness and to wish her luck on her new adventures. i wanted to make her something that took into account her personality and yet prepped her for her return to school. (girly yet tough, as she is a whimsical dancer, pianist, and poet, yet a hard core athlete!! yay soccer and hockey!) i hoped to make a pencil bag with the "weekend-away travel bag" pattern in "weekend sewing." i got to test out the zipper foot for my sewing machine on this project, and i must report that it was shockingly simple to use! unfortunately, this pattern was for something as large as a makeup bag, so i decided i needed to fill this "pencil bag" with goodies so that it wouldn't seem so ridiculously large. and thus her pink, cream, and navy themed gifts were born.i'm sure you've noticed that this fabric is of the same pattern as the flip side of robert's bday apron. to make it, i sewed strips of alternating solid navy and pink and cream striped fabrics together. notice i'm ocd to the point where my pink and cream stripes are equidistant apart (in terms of their stripes)! here's the backside of the sheet i made for the cover of abigail's notebook:the lining is made from my high school graduation gown! i, then, sewed the cover onto the cover of the notebook itself. sewing on paper is so thrilling!!! notice the pages are of pressed paper matter and not of normal paper itself (the best feature of this notebook!!):i sewed ribbons to both the back and front covers so that she could tie the notebook shut.abigail is particularly glamourous, but certainly not vain, so it was of the utmost importance that she have a little pocket mirror to keep in this pencil bag! pier 1 had the cutest little mirrors, but they had the most hideous cases. so, i took it upon myself to make the mirror its own navy, pink and cream case!it even has a mini velcro closure in front (unfortunately this velcro is not that sticky!):i then filled the bag with an assortment of office supply goodies, including an eraser, a spiffy hot pink highlighter, 2 pens, 2 RED pens (for all those vicious corrections), 2 pencils (i'm a math teacher, remember, and all students need pencils!), white-out, and the cutest mini stapler!then, i wrapped all the office goodies in themes, with witty sayings on the wrappers: "to help you get started on all that writing... (pens, pencils, highlighter)", "to help keep everything together... (stapler)", "watch out for all of those mistakes! (white-out, eraser)", "to help you get started on all that writing that you will be doing, creatively... (notebook)", "every glam gal needs one of these in her pencil bag... (mirror)"for the party, i baked a double tier chocolate cake with strawberry jam in the middle and powdered sugar and sliced strawberries on top. it was super moist and rather pretty. unfortunately the cake was too big for mom and dad's cake carrier, so i had to carry it without the lid down the street!the waiter at the restaurant kept asking for a slice, so we obliged at the end. isn't that a huge "no-no" to ask for food from restaurant diners?? i was flattered though, so no biggie.bye, abigail! we'll miss you!! (although i'll still be seeing her around philly hopefully, when she visits!)