Une autre Tour Eiffel

My niece's 10th birthday is this weekend. Continuing on the Eiffel tower theme of her last few birthday presents, I put keyka-lou's camera wristlet together for her. The original size seemed rather small, barely fitting an iphone, so I enlarged the pattern pieces to 115% on my printer. Not that my elementary-school-aged niece has an iphone. But lipgloss and a wallet take up space!

Why are Japanese fabric designers are so obsessed with Paris and all things French? Does anybody know? I mean, we have a perfectly good (and much taller) CN Tower here in Canada and you just don't see that on linen.

I decided things were a little dull with my green and natural linen colour-scheme, so I got out my Presencia perle 8 and did a blanket stitch trim around the flap instead of a simple machine top stitch. Next time I make this with linen, I'll skip the interfacing. The lining has a fusible batting attached to it's wrong side and it seems to give the pouch plenty of structure without having to interface the linen.

The closure is a sew-in magnetic button set. Although the pattern calls for it, Velcro and I are not friends. I find it a royal pain to sew in and secure, plus I don't like the sound of it at all. No disrespect to the genius who invented it. Gore-Tex rain jacket cuffs, yes. Cute little purses, no.

It is in the mail and on it's $15.92 plane ticket across the country. If only I could squeeze myself into a medium sized padded mailer. Because I know even though she loves my hand-made presents, nothing compares to a visit avec la vrai tante Krista, and her birthday party sounds like it'll be a blast. She's taking her friends on a PINK double-decker bus tour of Charlottetown, PEI. The probability of PINK cupcakes after the bus ride is very high. Lucky girls.