I see London, I see...

Well, just London. Lisa of Homesick Wanderlust is an anglophile and an avid traveler. When she's not traveling, she's planning her next trip. Several months ago she took a weekend trip. To London. I was so jealous. Lisa shares my love for all things British, especially London. She asked if I could make a Big Ben bag, so I did (four months after she asked...but I digress).


This picture came from Wikipedia. I tried to find a good picture of Big Ben from my trips to London, but mine are all crap. Surprise, surprise.

Just in case you haven't heard of Big Ben, it's a big clock tower attached to Parliament in London. Actually, it's not even the clock - the clock is just The Clock Tower (how clever). Fact: Big Ben is actually the bell housed within The Clock Tower. Fact: Big Ben can climb trees faster than it can run. (Okay, not really. That's bears, according to Dwight Schrute.)



Here we see the Big Ben bag on the lovely brownish carpet that covers our new apartment floor. Sadly, new apartment does not mean new and improved picture taking skills. Though, to be fair to me, I intended to take pictures this afternoon when maybe there would still be some natural light coming in to our living room. But my ultrasound lasted much longer than I expected, then we had to pick up the Subaru, and then it was dark and rainy.



Lisa was interested in a lining fabric that would exude Britishness. Something reminiscent of Burberry plaid. Burberry is a British "luxury fashion house," their tan/black/red plaid is widely copied everywhere. PLEASE NOTE: this fabric is NOT Burberry plaid (which isn't even called plaid, they call it "Burberry Check"), I am not trying to pass it off as Burberry anything, I have no association with Burberry. Please don't sue me Burberry. It's just a plaid fabric in similar colors.



Anyway, my original plan was to use red vinyl under the cut out of Big Ben, ahem, I mean The Clock Tower, but I liked the way the plaid (NOT Burberry plaid) fabric looked underneath, so I used that instead. Dr. Pants suggested I use a button for the face of the clock after he saw me struggling with the placement of a circle of black vinyl. I had a red button, it looked cute, so I used it. Hooray Dr. Pants!



Here's another attempt at a decent picture. George kept getting in the way though. I think he thinks he matched the (NOT Burberry) plaid.