Slow stitch Sunday and more bees

The hollyhocks are blooming lovely.  Sugary pink petals and big fat bees who've even taken to sleeping inside a flower to ensure they can feed the moment they wake up.  

The butterflies are loving the marjoram.  I think this is a Small Tortoiseshell.  

In the last few days I've managed another jaunt to the charity shop.  I bought an L K Bennet dress and an ASOS top.  The dress is too tight for me, it's a tailored size 10 so not surprising.  It's headed for my fabric stash.  However, the top I'll wear.  Weirdly, it's a size 14 and - despite the baggy kind of style - it's tight on me, especially around the wrists.  Fashion brands need to standardise sizing, don't they?  

Anyway, on to crafty stuff.  I've been making a bag recently.  Just a big roomy shopper.  I've pieced the outer part of the bag, and am still stitching the handle, then I'll find a suitable material for the lining.  

It's a mix of new and upcycled material, and I'll post pictures once it's completed.  Also - I seem to have a thing about bags lately - I had the urge to make a little slow stitch project, a drawstring bag for keeping odds & ends in.  

As with the blue bag, it's a mix of new and upcycled.  I decided on soft colours, muted plain shades, then mixed it up by impulsively adding the green patterned fabric.  A print that I really love and am eeking out a fat quarter of it, using it sparingly.  There's a Fifties kind of vibe to the print with the dots and splodges, don't you think?  

I pieced and appliqued and stitched until it somehow felt 'right'.  

I don't usually go for novelty prints, but I really liked these doggies, so lined the bag with this.  

I had a length of grey cord which was useful instead of a ribbon for the drawstring.  Couldn't find any beads to thread on to it, so I improvised with winding cotton thread around and around the ends of the cord to prettify it.  (Making those reminded me of having hair wraps years ago.  Those hippie style, brightly coloured wraps that were made using Superglue!  They had to be cut out once you got tired of 'em.)

What do you think?  Now I'm wondering whether to finish the blue bag or read a few more pages of 'Hamnet', the Maggie O'Farrell book that I'm halfway through and is superb.  Or maybe an evening stroll around the neigbourhood, work off a few calories?  

Decisions, decisions ...