So kick off your shoes and put on your swim fins Cause when it comes to quarries I'm known to swim

This totebag was made for a coach of the Cottontail Cobias, one of the many teams in the Northern Virginia Swim League. Like I do with all my bags, I appliqued pockets on the inside for a cell phone and other accoutrements.

I used a Cobia t-shirt and a fish-themed batik print for the exterior. Yellow and blue fabrics were coordinated for the interior.  The Cobia shirt was reverse-appliqued into the batik.  The entire bag was machine-quilted.

Factoid of the day:  The Cobia is also known as Rachycentron canadum. 

Semper Paratus

This combined set of the Parsley, Wasabi, and Chive was custom-made for a US Coast Guard wife.  The client wanted a nautical theme for her items so a sailboat fabric was incorporated as the primary coordinate.  One side panel of her Parsley was customized with her initials in signal flags.  The Wasabi had a Reef Knot appliqued to the outside of the wallet.

Parsley III

This Parsley was not made for a military spouse but rather for a female servicemember. Because she wanted to use her Parsley Purse and matching Wasabi Wallet while in uniform, the coordinating fabrics had to be the color of the ACUs. After much auditioning of grey-green, taupes, and tan fabric against the ACUs, a selection of these muted colors was finalized.

Parsleys are made from the uniform shirt. Most Parsleys have exterior pockets since those were the breast pockets on the shirt. This Parsley was made from a maternity ACU which does not have pockets on the top. It does have patch pockets on the bottom of the shirt which I used in the interior of the bag. A mini-pocket was added to hold a cellphone or IPod.

Parsley I and II

Parsleys are soft-sided quilted purses made from uniforms and other fabric.

The two wide sides (front and back) are from the left and right upper front of the uniform. One side is the NAMETAG half with pocket, the other is the U.S. SERVICE. These particular uniforms belonged to Navy and Army Servicemembers. The inside of each bag incorporates a double pocket made from coordinating fabric plus another uniform pocket complete with patch. The usual closure is made from the button-cuff from the sleeve. An alternative option is to substitute a zipper closure for the button-cuff closure. There is an extra charge to substitute the closure.

One Parsley was coordinated with pink and green fabrics. It would be great for a military AKA or DZ or simply any uber-prep like the client for which it was designed. This Parsley has the default button-cuff closure.

The other Parsley incorporated palm tree fabric and various purple based coordinates, one of the client's favorite colors. Palm trees are special for this client as she and her family were stationed in Hawaii (lucky!) and are from a state with a palm(etto) tree in the flag. Her Parsley has a zipper as a closure. This client customized her bag even further by having the patches from the sleeves added to the sides of the bag.