After finished his swimming school, we promised Sidra that he could start learning martial art, something that he had been asking for sometime.
He didn’t want karate though, fortunately there is an Aikido club at the community centre. Sidra has attended several classes and really loved it there. The teachers are several old men, they are such fun teachers and the kids love them.
Aikido requires little physical strength, as it basically uses the force of the attacker and redirects it, it is good for self-defense. Because of this nature, Aikido doesn’t use weapon. Anyway, one of the teacher also knows Kendo, which uses stick as a weapon, and he teaches some basic kendo technique to the kids.
Sidra got his stick last week, actually the ‘stick’ is just a PVC pipe but he was ecstatic to have his own martial art stick. He asked me to make a bag for the stick.
I googled around looking for images of the bag to familiarize myself with them. Most of the bags has lining with opening on the side, the top part is then folded down and tied. I incorporated all these features to Sidra’s bag and added an adjustable strap so it can be carried easily.
Sidra wants a black bag with skulls design, I used quilting cotton by Riley Blake in black with orange skulls from Fashionable Fabrics. It was one of the prizes of my Spring top last year. The lining is lurik, Indonesian traditional handloom fabric with striped design. I used black cotton twill tape for the ties and cotton webbing with plastic buckles and adjusters for the strap. The bottom of the bag is reinforced with a piece of leather. The white label is fusible label for Sidra to write his name.
It has been a while since I made bags or pouches, and this simple bag is quite a refreshing diversion from garment sewing projects that I’ve been making. Of course the fact that my little customer is satisfied with the bag is even more gratifying!
I did Kendo for a few years in Uni, my bag was no where near as cute. Very sad.
That looks so cute. I study arnis (Filipino stick and knife) and my training machete has created a hole in my current stick bag. I’ll definitely need to create a new one.
Btw I study jiu jitsu also and we have a lot of elements of aikido in our artform as well (like off-balancing). Definitely a very useful thing to learn.
I never heard about arnis before, sounds interesting… and dangerous! Sadly I’m afraid of knives, even kitchen knives. I don’t know why!
And you know jiu jitsu too, how awesome! Maybe I should try learning some self-defense too, like you said, it is very useful thing
Lately I’ve been sewing a lot of non-clothing pieces, which makes me excited about getting back to apparel. Plus, I think the more geometric or engineered projects, like bags and cushions, help give some new ideas about fitting clothing.
I’ve spent lots of time over the past few days distracted by your blog! Super cute projects, and you’ve got a great writing voice that’s fun to read. Also your version of the Minorou has inspired me to make the coat next time I feel like indulging in a pattern.
I understand what you mean about sewing non-clothing makes us excited to go back to apparel! I was feeling a bit uncreative last week, also because it is cold here. But now I feel like I’m ready to go back making pretty dresses
This is perfect. My boyfriend does kendo.
I love this! Sidra is cute as can be in his uniform!
it does feel nice to break up the types of things we’re sewing, doesn’t it? love the stick bag and it looks like sidra does too!
You couldn’t done better thing for Sidra! Aikido is amazing skill and you live in perfect country to learn that skill. He is one lucky kid. I was learning karate when I was a child, and I’m planing to send my kids on aikido, once when I have them.
Also bag is beautiful! With skulls, just he likes it ;)))