Mama's Got a Brand New Bag

Will works at Whole Foods Market.  In addition to natural and organic foods they also sell cool fair-trade clothes and accessories.  I bought my bag there a few years ago.  It's the perfect size to carry around my wallet and personal items, books and videos and other materials I haul back and forth from my job at the public library, or my laptop on rainy days when Katie needs an indoor play area and I need free Wi-Fi.

One of the pockets was getting worn.  When I was still living at home, I'd simply ask my mom to sew it up for me.  I can barely stitch a straight line.  In seventh grade my sewing teacher informed me that I was the worst student she ever had after she caught me skipping her class one day and I didn't turn in my pillow case on time.  I had been absent the day before, but then I showed up to play on my basketball team that evening.  How was I supposed to know my sewing teacher's daughter would be playing on the other team?

So sewing isn't my thing, but being frugal and eco-friendly is.  The other day while we were at this sweet store called It's a Beautiful Day getting a gift for a friend's birthday, I perused the bags.  They had some really cool, handmade bags for about twenty bucks.  My birthday's coming up, so I showed Will the ones I like.  But then as we were checking out, Katie wanted to look at the patches in the display case.  There it was, the solution to my ratty bag problem.  A three buck peace patch.

"Do you sew it on?"  I asked.  My mom used to patch our clothes back in the seventies, but I couldn't remember how she did it.

"You can, but you don't have to.  You can just iron them on if you like."

I looked at Will standing next to us.  I must have had a quizzical look on my face.  "What?"  He asked.

"Do we own an iron?"

Apparently the people who lived in our house before we bought it eight years ago left behind their iron in our laundry room.  Right there on the shelf behind the laundry detergent.  I'd never noticed.

So these iron thingamajiggers and these iron-on patches are brilliant inventions.  I didn't have to stitch a single thread.  No poking my fingers with the needle.  No nagging teachers at the back of my head telling me I'm not doing it right.  Just a little heat, a little wiggle, and voila!  I didn't even burn my fingers.

Before:

After: