Yoga bag for non bendy people

I am not a yoga aficionado. I could never follow the sequence of poses and nor could I ever get my body to co-operate either - I was never very flexible or fit even back in the days before I had Anna when exercise wasn't given last priority in my never ending list of things to do each day.  But I have recently started a course in digital photography and since we did a night field trip this week to practise photography in low light and no light situations, I needed to carry my tripod along with all the other stuff I usually carry.

Then I spied a lithe lycra clad lunchtime exerciser bouncing off to a yoga class carrying her rolled up mat in a drawstring bag with a shoulder strap and I realised that is exactly what I needed to make. However because I didn't want my tripod to get knocked about (or it to knock me about), I quilted two layers of cotton with a layer of batting in the middle.  And after about an hour or so I had a highly functional bag made fully from stash materials:

To pretty it up I sewed a ribbon with a faux tape measure printed on along the shoulder strap, which was also handy for finding the handle in the dark since I made this out of black cotton drill.  I bought this ribbon from Typo store (a stationary store) in the city of all places, bought only because I'm sucker for cute things:

So simple to make - literally a rectangle of fabric sewed along the long edge to create a tube, a circle of fabric sewed onto the bottom and the other end turned over to create a casing for the drawstring.  Sew on a long skinny rectangular strap and you're all done!  Amy Butler even has a free downloadable pattern for a yoga bag as well as some other pretty cool patterns, if you need a little more direction than my one sentence description.

So glad I did make it though, everyone else in my class sure had their hands full lugging around their tripods.  No photo of me demonstrating how great it is (the downfall when you're the photographer I guess), but here's my little model still in her jarmies modelling it for me:

Of course you want to see the photos I took don't you? Too bad I'm going to show you anyway because I'm a little bit proud of how much my photography skills have improved in the last 6 weeks since I began this course.  The Vivid Festival is currently on in Sydney, and down in Circular Quay (home to the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge) there are many buildings lit up and other light installations in place.  I went on Tuesday night with my photography class but also went back on Thursday night with my husband and Anna because it was just so much fun. 

Clearly I have much yet to learn, but they're not too bad are they? Hopefully this means my blog photos will also improve too now, although since taking photos of myself involves a tripod, remote control and a fair amount of finger crossing I can't guarantee it!