Creative makes - a child's art case

I thought I'd share my latest make.  It was my littlest nephew's 5th birthday yesterday.  I had already bought him a couple of bits but wanted to make him a little something too.  I don't see him all that often (and when I do he rarely speaks to me), so I asked my sister what he's into at the moment.  The answer came back: Star Wars and the Avengers, games and puzzles, and books.

The first thing I did was search for some Avenger fabric.

Once that arrived, I decided what to make, found some plain fabric to pair with the Avengers, and made myself a pattern.

Then I got stitching.  I did it in two halves so that when carried, the Avengers stay the right way up on both sides.  First I hemmed the pockets, then stitched them onto the plain fabric.  Next, I sewed the edges of both fabrics together on three sides, inside out.  I then turned them the correct way and top-stitched.

The next step was to cut some cardboard to size for the inside.  This is to make the case firm, so he can lean on it when out and about.  I used a pizza box from the recycling.

Finally, I made a handle and then stitched it in place as I sewed the two halves together.  This was the trickiest part as there wasn't much leeway on the fabric around the cardboard and I also wanted to do it neatly, without leaving any raw edges.  I then slotted in some paper, pencils and the notepad I had already bought, made a birthday card to go with it and popped it in a parcel ready to post.

P.S.  Sadly, I don't think popping a parcel to the post-office counts as an "essential journey" so I haven't yet dispatched the children to the post office for me.  The parcel is still sitting on my desk and waiting for the Covid storm to break before it goes in the mail.  On the positive side, this means that littlest nephew will get an extended birthday as the gifts will be rolling in at some point through the Spring and Summer!