Poppy's Bag

I came across this a few days ago. Obviously my penchant for designing and making bags goes back a long way. I double checked with my mother and I was 8 when I made this. This is a dual coloured handbag that I made specially for my great grandmother. She was a prolific knitter and crocheter and I remember watching her work for hours. God bless her she actually used this bag on numerous occasions- obviously when she knew I'd see her doing it. When she died 20 years ago mum found this carefully stored with all Poppy's special table cloths. Mum kept it safe until recently, and I've had it not so carefully knocking about my place.



Check out the woolly ribbon handle! I remember these were all the rage back then I used to wear my hair in pigtails with these ribbons, we thought we were extra special when we wore two colours in each pigtail. Mine were often red or blue. My sister favoured pink or purple.
I remember being even smaller about 5 and 6, living in Katherine in the Northern Territory I used to make outfits and accessories for the fairies using flower petals sewn together with thin pieces of grass. My sister and I would leave them in the trees and overnight they would disappear!
One day I remember we were sitting under the big tree next to the fence near dad's work (he was a fireman and we lived next door to the fire station) I was sewing with fabric and needle and thread on this occasion when suddenly money began to fall from the tree! 1 and 2 cent pieces fell here and there. This caused much excitement because at the local general store a huge bag of lollies could be purchased with 5c. Amazing! The fairies were paying us for the lovely clothes we had been leaving for them. A few moments later dad stepped over the little wire fence and was "surprised" as we were at the falling money. He hadn't seen a thing he said but he thought he had heard bells. (Tinkerbell was our favourite fairy although we lived in fear that if we did anything wrong she would let dad know what we had been up to. Although I have to say I don't recall ever really being naughty.)