bags

Lady in Waiting Bags

Bags to hold helpful tidbits for retinue, reigning nobles and anyone at events.

Copyright 2009-2014. All rights reserved.

Two of my oldest friends were elevated to baron and baroness of my home barony a few months before I moved to Atlantia. At what was to be my last event in the barony, Her Excellency Lydia inducted me into her personal retinue. Since I knew I would not be able to provide service as either retinue or anti-retinue while living in another kingdom I created substitutes for myself in the form of lady in waiting bags. When asked to stand on a retinue for Lydia I hadn't a clue what she'd need since my duties heretofore have been of a more counter nature. She responded by sending me handouts from a class she and a few other new nobles had attended on what ladies in waiting were and what they needed to do to provide service. I'm linking to the file of information. Many thanks to Baroness Tana a l'Esprit Fort (soon to be Mistress Tana) and Baroness Emma of Essex for creating the class and Baroness Lydia of the Pines for sharing the information. "How to be a Lady-in-Waiting"

Based upon the list, I realized the best thing I could do would be to provide bags of all the items that the list recommended that would hold up to hard use and many events. I filled those bags from dollar stores and my own stocks with as much as I could from the list. To ensure the bags were always returned to the right folks I painted arms on 3 of the 4 I created.

Here are the overall measurements if you would like to make similar bags. All of the measurements were based on the best use of the canvas I had and to fit the items I'd picked up at the dollar store so be certain that you measure your finds to things fit well. Also today I can't locate my bag so I'll try to update these directions with my actual measurements once I locate the bag.

I used about 2 yards of canvas to produce 4 bags. Any durable fabric will work or even layered or quilted layers of less durable fabrics. The bags are designed with a flat bottom and several inches of width to accommodate additional items. This is especially handy for holding items that the baroness is given while walking around an event. If one is going shopping with the baroness, take along an extra empty bag to hold purchases. This layout will make 2 bags from 1 yards of approximately 54-60" wide fabric with a little excess.

Cut out the pieces. Make 4 straps for the bag and 8 small ties for the inside. Be sure to measure the bottle you want to hold in place and leave some excess length for tying. Finish the top and bottom of the large and small pocketes. Then layer the small pocket on the large matching the sides and bottom. Stitch a couple of pen pockets to hold the pieces together and baste the sides and bottom. Pin the straps to the outside of the bags and stitch. Be sure to reinforce the stitching as this area will take a lot of stress. Pin the pockets and ties to the inside of the bag as shown. The pockets will sit at the bottom of the bag or 18" down from one of the top edges. Be sure the top of the pocket faces the top of the bag.

Baste everything into place. Fold the bag so the pocket and ties are on the outside. Stitch the sides to the bag. I used French seams for extra reinforcement. Be sure that the ties are on the outside when you are adding the sides so that when you turn the bag right-side out they will be on the inside of the bag.

Paint your arms or charges on the bag or personalize in any other way, fill it up and present it!

I shopped the dollar stores for most items and Walmart for a few. The handy wipes are always near the diapers at Walmart to save you a lot of the legwork I did looking for them. For many of the items I was able to find several of one item in a packet and split them up among several bags. For instance hair pins often come with a large number in one packet. I cut the cardboard backings apart so they stayed organized and there were about 25 per bag. I purchased a bag of 100 safety pins and divided them among the bags. To make them easy to find I pinned one to the inside of each bag and then threaded the rest onto that pin. One bag of sanitary napkins and one box of tampons split into 4 bags with plenty to spare. Walmart carries sample sizes of many items so you can have small versions to conserve space and reduce weight. This is especially handy for the toilet tissue since the sample sizes come in a little protective plastic container to keep it clean in the bag.

Organize small items into draw string bags or even zipper pouches, which can be found at the dollar stores as well. For the larger items, I built the bags to fit the items I purchased.

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