The Teaching Bag and The Physics Skirt

I made a bag for taking my books and things from my office to the classroom (excessive, maybe, since my office is maximum 30 seconds away from any classroom in the school). That said, I needed to find a use for my Dick and Jane fabric and I thought a bag would be great. Plus I could customize it with pockets! Full disclosure: I only made one pocket. But it's useful!

I decided to use this ribbon with the fabric:

Anyway, I cut it out based on a manila folder I had lying around, then I attached the pocket (shown in the first picture empty, and in the second picture with my phone and cigarettes, exactly what I designed it for!).

I used the straps from this bag (which I hope to recycle into something else)...

And then used the ribbon as a semi-border and bow.

I boxed the bottom so it's quite deep, which is great. I love it, now I can't wait for the internship to start so I can start hauling papers and books from my office!

Now onto the physics skirt... when I was in Season I figured I'd have a look through the patterns and maybe pick one out to make the skirt out of. I looked through the plus sized patterns, figuring there'd be SOMETHING there, but there were only 2 skirts to choose from! Can you imagine? I chose a very easy, circle-skirt-y type thing and went to the counter to ask for it. The woman looked at me (not knowing I had chosen a plus size pattern) and was like "Are you sure about sizing?"

Now there are two problems with the implication of this question. One, she's implying that I don't know how to read sizes (which I do in European, UK and US, thank you very much) and Two, I don't know my own size. You'd think that she'd know that seamstresses, especially seamstresses that MAKE CLOTHES FOR THEMSELVES would have some idea of what they were looking for. When she finally pulled out the pattern I was like, yes, that's right and she looked at me AGAIN until she glanced down and saw the big bold letters spelling "PLUS." Then she decided it was okay to sell it to me. Another problem, I just realized, with her question is that it was assuming that even if I wasn't purchasing PLUS I could've been buying a pattern to make a smaller lady something. I was very annoyed. Then, when I was picking out ribbon and thread, the girl behind the counter wouldn't let me touch any of them or rifle through the Tupperware containers they keep them in. I'm a very tactile-shopper and it's very frustrating for me not to be able to handle the goods. JoAnn Fabrics, I miss you.

Anyway, I'm pleased with the physics skirt, which is lucky because if I wasn't it would've been a waste of 75$. I think I might add belt loops so I can ensure it stays up, but that will have to wait for another day.

I'd post a picture of me in it but I just cannot be bothered to get dressed right now. Too lazy and hot.