Kokeshi bag

My lovely niece who lives in Le Havre loves the Japanese Kokeshi dolls. She has books about them, and some small reproductions in hard plastic. I made her a bag with a pieced Kokeshi on the front.
Here it is shown by DD3 in her school uniform, just to give you an idea of the size.

The pattern was taken from Quilt Mania, number 77, which was published in the spring.

I used one of their designs, although the round part of the bottom of the face disappears on my bag. I wonder why I took so much trouble to piece this part, and would recommend that you just make a square face.
Here is a close view of the doll finished on the quilted panel that was to become the front, bottom and back of the bag.

Of course I added some little pockets inside, in 2 different purple fabrics.

The edging on the top was made with my sewing machine on a cross stitch point.

I hope she gets to use this bag a lot, as it was given in June this year when we visited for the first communion of her brother and the baptism of her sister.

I'll try to publish more posts from now as I stopped working. More time to sew, hooray.