Sunday, March 15, 2015

Tiny Tote Bags

 This week I did a bit of sewing for a project for my Daisy scout troop.

Instead of earning patches this first year of scouting, my Daisies are earning petals for their Daisy patch, each petal representing one part of the Girl Scout Law. Each petal has a flower and fun story associated with it. This week's lesson was about Mari the Marigold who represents being "Responsible for what I say and do". 

While researching ideas for each of the petals, I came across the Zinkie Project idea. Basically they have a small item that they are responsible for and they have to bring it back to the next meeting.  These are our Zinkies.
 I wanted to make something that the girls could keep their Zinkies in so I hunted around in my stash and found this half yard of adorable fabric that I didn't remember that I had.  Perfect!
 Since the petals all have a flower friend associated with it, this ties in well with the whole garden theme.
I sewed together a basic unlined tote bag. Without the handle, they finished at 3 3/4 inches square.
Here are all 12 done.  I didn't have enough of the 1st rainbow fabric for the handles so I found another one that worked just as well.
The little Zinkie fit inside perfectly.
They are all filled with their charges and were ready for our meeting.
They look so cute peaking out of the totes in this photo.
I held off bringing these out at the meeting until the end. My troop is very curious about what we are doing next and I didn't want to spoil the surprise.  Because I wasn't able to have them all one color and I knew there would be a little drama with those that wanted Pink (practically all of them did), I laid the totes out on the table so they couldn't see inside and they took turns picking a tote.  Yes there were a few girls not quite happy with the color Zinkie that they got but I think it was a also a good lesson on learning to be happy with what you receive. 

The girls also received a small journal notebook where they could write about their adventures with their Zinkies. It will be interesting to see at our next meeting if they all come back and find out just what sort of fun these little Zinkies had.

11 of you added your own colorful comments:

KatieQ said...

Terrific project. The little totes are adorable. It must have been very exciting for them to take home their Zinkies.

Jeanie said...

Your Zinkie project is just adorable and what a delightful way to teach them some responsibility. I hope all of the Zinkies return!

Julianne said...

Those are so cute!

sunny said...

What a cute idea!

beaquilter said...

very cute bags!

Needled Mom said...

Those are so cute!! What a great leader you are. The girls will always remember their fun.

HeatherK @ A Reformed Heath'n said...

those are so darling! What a good mom =)

HeatherK @ A Reformed Heath'n said...

those are so darling! What a good mom =)

Susie said...

Hi Michele I think they are so cute but I remember when my two Boys were in Beavers/Cubs/Scouts and they had this sort of project and it was always Mom who remembered we had to take whatever out with us and make sure it went back to the meeting! I also remember one year when Eldest was in Cubs and Youngest was in Beavers and they each had a different animal that had to go on holiday and we had to take a picture of all the places we visited with the animals and make a journal up afterwards! The Boys had great fun but I spent the whole two weeks with them in my bag and whipping the camera out at every turn, my poor husband was driven to distraction the whole time!!!!! It was great to see the project all done at the end but it was hard work!!!! I hope your troop has fun with theirs. Hugs, Susie x

StitchinByTheLake said...

So, so cute! blessings, marlene

Tina said...

What an adorable project! We loved our boy scout troop but that was pre-teen boys. Girls are so much fun!