Ballet Bag for Layla

Our God Daughter, Layla, had her first Ballet and Tap dance recital this past weekend.  So of course I had to make something for her to commemorate the occassion.  I decided to make her a tote bag and I knew just which cart to use.  Here are the details!

Cart and Materials

• Shall We Dance (Cricut Circle Exclusive) - ballerinas
• MS Seasonal Cake Art - font for name
• Tote Bag - Simplicity brand from Joann's

Let me tell you, this bag took some trials to get it right!  For all the fabric, I used Heat & Bond Fabric Adhesive that you can buy by the yard at most fabric stores. 

I started with the ballerina's and I cut them with the Silhouette feature.  My first mistake was fabric choice.  I orignally went with a black duck cloth which turned out to be way too thick.  I set my gypsy to cut the image several times and it still wouldn't seperate cleanly from the fabric.  So I switched to a basic black calico fabric which is much thinner. 

It took me cutting the images 3 times before I got a clean enough cut.  I still had to snip them in a few areas in order to free them.  But they were done.  The Heat & Bond has a paper backing on it for cutting so I removed that and they were ready to iron on to the bag.

   

Cutting the letters was much more simple and I don't know why. I used a calico fabric for this as well.  Oh well!.  They came out crisp and clean.

Because you can't have a ballerina without a tutu, I decided to add some tulle to embellish this part of their silhouettes.  I took a stip of tulle, doubled it over and ran a running stitch through it so I could gatther it.  I then used Fabri-Tac to glue the tulle to the silhouettes just where I wanted.  I then glued a ribbon rose at the waist from my stash to add some femininity and to cover up the thread.

Here's our tiny dancer with her bag and her beautiful peonies.  She is a star in the making!  I hope you like the bag and try cutting fabric with your Cricut.  If you have any questions or want to leave me some blog love, leave a comment below!

Smooches,