Speaking of publishing....

With all that thinking and talking about book ideas, I forgot to mention that my project is in this month's Australian Homespun Magazine "A Trip To Remember" (project of the month) series.

 It actually would have looked a lot better in the photo, had the strap been ironed after it traveled by (wayward, late, stress-inducing...) courier service to Sydney, but I guess it has a right to wear its battle-scars with pride. 

The strap actually sits in a lovely curve, like this....

I based the styling on memories of my mother's 'beauty case' from the 1960's.  It could indeed be used to carry toiletries instead of craft supplies but it was designed as a crafting-on-the-go bag. 

It has lots of pockets inside the lid and around the sides to carry tools, threads etc, and a roomy middle bit to carry the work-in-progress.  It can open right up and sit on your lap in the car (only if you're the passenger!) or on a train and you can stitch or knit or crochet away to your little heart's content.

After the courier was tracked down and the parcel containing the bag was picked up (by the magazine editor ...from a courier depot miles away.... late one rainy Friday evening...), we hoped for smooth sailing with getting the project to print, but it appears that there was another hiccup.

The wrong file was accidentally sent to print and one of the pattern pieces is labeled wrongly.  There is an errata message to go in next month's mag that says something like this...

There are two patterns marked as the Lid Side Panel. The label on the larger of the two patterns (printed on top of the Grand Adventure ‘Shorts Back’ pattern) should have been labelled ‘Lid centre panel’ and the markings at the top and bottom of this pattern should say Handle placement.

A new template can be found here.

This little carry-case is a really satisfying sew.  My pattern testers all felt very chuffed with themselves when they made their own versions.... and come to think of it, so did I.   Everything just comes together nicely and it looks all cute and perky and retro.  Lovely.

The fabric is all Amy Butler's LARK range.

EDITED TO ADD: If you can't get your hands on a glossy paper version of the mag, you can buy a digital copy of this magazine ($3.50AUD) here.  Or you can subscribe to the digital magazine for a year.