Great Love - Sandra Saddle Bag (Swoon)

The final teacher bag was for a teacher that we LOVE!

Do small things with great love, which sums up this teacher perfectly!

She was amazing at dealing with my overly-intelligent son and then when she had my anxious daughter, she really brought her out of her shell and helped her develop great skills for coping and making decisions.  She is the only teacher that NEVER yells at her kids (we're all human, except for her, I'm pretty sure she's some sort of compassionate alien that never ages and has come to earth to help our children).  When she retires next year, the school will never be the same!

Interior is blue hearts, perfectly matches and a great way to show our love!

Since she's so amazing, the first gift she got was the Oh Deer India Hobo bag 2 years ago.  My son picked the pattern, fabric and embroidery for that one, so it was very colorful! She was still gushing about it this year and made sure to let me know that her granddaughter claimed it during a visit because she needed something to carry her rock collection.  Of course I had to make something awesome again for her, and I usually let the kids pick the fabrics and patterns, but this one fit her so perfectly that as soon as I saw it, I had to grab the panels!  I did let my daughter choose which panels to include (there were 6 options!)

Yellow zipper from Zippit and came with a free zipper pull that my daughter claimed for this bag!

The outer fabric and panels came from The Fabric Cobbler (Northcott Chloe line) and the lining fabric was Joann's fabric from my stash (yay, stash busting!)

Fabric gusset is so much easier than vinyl!

My youngest requested a bag with lots of pockets, but she also liked the shape of the Sandra Saddle Bag (aff link), so I planned on adding more pockets, but ran out of time!  (Curse you strep!)

Under the flap, the panel set was full of great quotes!

I didn't make any changes to the pattern, except to move the snap to under the flap and on the outside of the pocket, instead of the sticking up connector that would have hidden the panel.  I really prefer the magnet underneath, especially for panels!  I did use the zipper pocket to turn, which is totally my favorite technique!

Since this was done the night before the last day of school (before midnight for once!), I had to squeeze it into my tiny light box for the pics, but it barely fit!