My Fantasy Vacation - Scandinavia

One of my favorite Etsy teams, the Blogging Business Artisans (BBA), has a monthly team challenge.  This month, Sarah of magnoliasurprise challenged team members to create something around the theme, Vacation Time!  

This is what Sarah had to say about the theme: "We are into vacation season in July -- create something that brings back a favorite vacation memory, something that represents a place you've visited or one you'd like to visit, colors or scents associated with a special place, or perhaps something funny that happened on a vacation. Make it fun!!"

I have not taken many vacations, but as some of you know, visiting Scandinavia is on my Bucket List.  Two of my great-grandfathers came to American from Denmark.  My paternal great-grandpa Larsen came from the island of Mon and my maternal great-grandpa Quist came from Copenhagen.   And thanks to my cousin Lise, we’ve been able to maintain contact with my paternal Danish relatives across the pond.  So in responding to this month's BBA Challenge, I chose to take a fantasy vacation to Denmark.

My project incorporates blue and white fabrics designed by one of my favorite Scandinavian designers, 

Lotta Jansdotter.  

The lining fabric, also by Lotta Jansdotter, says “Danish Modern” to me. 

The blue reminds me of the ocean, a blue sky, and the blue of Royal Copenhagen plates, which my Great Aunt Dot ( Augusta Larsen, the hat maker) collected on her biennial trips to Denmark.

Great Aunt Dot - Augusta Larsen

I made this small box wallet using the Box Wallet & Pyramid Pouch pattern by KeykaLou Patterns. Michelle Webster (KeykaLou) now does business as Michelle Patterns.  If you're looking for bag patterns--from tiny pocket wallets to padded camera bags and full-sized grocery totes, Michelle has an easy-to-follow downloadable pattern for you.

This little wallet is called a “box wallet” because of the boxed corners at the bottom of the bag:

I used lightweight fusible interfacing on the outer fabric, and a layer of cotton batting as “invisible lining” to give the little bag some extra stability.  I think if I make another wallet using this pattern, I will use cotton flannel instead of the batting.  It's a bit bulky.   I love the small a magnetic snap closure. 

To see how other BBA team members have responded to the challenge, check out the Blogging Business Artisans team blog.

TTFN

LeAnn