A few months ago I ‘signed up’ for a craft swap organised by House of Pinheiro (have you seen Rachel’s amazing sewing creations yet?) and was lucky enough to be paired with Sarah Clevenger from USA.

The theme of the international craft swap was ‘nautical’ and the idea was to make something in red, white or blue.

What I have loved most about the craft swap (this the the first one I have been involved in) was finding out about my swap partner. Sarah is an amazing lady and has started up “Bows for Adoption” which is an Etsy shop through which she makes and sells bows from repurposed fabric to raise money so she can adopt a child. I find that so amazing. If you want to find out some more about Sarah’s adoption story you can check it out here.

It was such a huge honour to receive my fabulous craft swap gifts – would you like to see what the lovely Sarah sent me?

The Totes are so beautifully and each is lined in a cute gingham fabric.

Sarah has posted an excellent tutorial on how to make the totes on her blog Musings of a Seamstress. The tote is a perfect size for ipads and other tablets.

Incase you are wondering what I made for Sarah,  it was this polka dot purse with a hand crocheted anchor. As I wanted to make something that acknowledged Sarah’s Bows for Adoption work, I attached a crocheted bow onto the flower zip pull and repurposed a silky scarf for the purses lining.

I would like to end this post by thanking House of Pinheiro for organising the swap and send my sincere thanks to Sarah for being such a wonderful swap partner  – I wish both Sarah and Eric every success on their adoption journey. To enable them to reach their fund-raising target as soon as possible, please help by encouraging as many people as you can to check out Bows for Adoption. Thank you.