Pink Bag

When I was nine years old I sewed this bag for a 4-H project.  I distinctly remember picking out this towel in Kmart with my mom specifically for the project.  We were in Bismarck for my orthodontist appointment, and we bought the towel in the linen department at Kmart before driving home.  I was excited about the color, pink, and the cute little flowers on the bag.  I loved the darker pink boarder on the ends of the towels.  I knew that this towel would make a great bag.

I also have clear memories of sewing this bag in my mom’s sewing corner in her bedroom.  To make the project, you folded a towel in half, sewed down the sides, and made a loop for the gathering string at the opening.  I was pretty nervous to use the sewing machine, and I went slowly and carefully with my mom watching every stitch.   I loved my bag.  I was so proud that I had made it myself.  I thought the finished product was stunning, and when it came time to choose which 4-H projects to exhibit in the fair, the bag was one of the projects I chose.

There were a lot of bags made out of towels on display on the Cloverbud table, and almost all of them got blue ribbons.  My bag, the beautiful pink bag that I cherished and was so proud of, got a red ribbon.  The judge said that the dark pink border didn’t match up on both sides.  It doesn’t.  But  later my mom looked at it with a turned up face and said that it was actually because the maker of the towel didn’t measure correctly and sew the border on the towel precisely.  I couldn’t have made them match up perfectly no matter what I had done.  If we hadn’t picked a towel with a noticeable border, I probably would have gotten a blue ribbon instead of a red.  And even though I got a lot of other blue ribbons that day, I felt embarrassed about my red ribbon sitting on the table.  I felt sad for my pink bag.

Even though the judge wasn’t impressed, I brought my bag home and I used it for all sorts of things.  And I kept on using it!  This pink bag went to Europe on choir tour twice.  It went to college.  It went on choir tour in college.  It’s been in an extraorinidary number of states.   It’s been with me at honor band festivals.  I’m pretty sure it came along on my honeymoon.  I take it with me whenever I travel, even now.  It makes a perfect toiletry bag, and my kids know how special it is.  They insist, however, that it’s “Mom’s white bag” instead of a pink bag.  The best thing about this bag is how you can throw it in the washing machine, but it’s so used that it has faded, and if you didn’t know it was pink, you might not realize it anymore.

I’m willing to bet that most of those other blue ribbon bags on the Cloverbud table at the county fair have been lost, given away, or thrifted by now.  My bag might have gotten a red ribbon, but it has set a record for usefulness.