Tired of the toys wandering around in my tote / nappy bag, a couple of years ago (when I had only one child and thus more time on my hands), I started making little bags out of cute left-over fabric. The purpose of these little bags was to hold a handful of toys to bring to restaurants or on journeys -- to keep my toddler entertained and my head cool.

When my girlfriends saw me, being so super organized with my little cloth bags, they fell from their chairs out of admiration for such highly innovative ideas and amazing skill work :-) . They all wanted me to sew them little cloth bags for their nappy bags (which I did, of course). The bags were quickly baptized 'restaurant bags', and we all started to bring them to restaurants, or on our travels.

Now, the secret to why these little bags work so well is that the content can only be seen or played with in restaurants or on journeys. The kids are always so excited when we pull out our little toy-bags, and it surely keeps them entertained for a long time!

The dimensions of a restaurant bag is about 20 by 25 cm (8"x10"), and it closes with a zipper. Making your own little bag is really quite simple, because honestly, I'm not such a talented sewer at all. Let’s say the imperfection makes it truly unique!

Suggestions of items to put into your restaurant bag are:

• a selection of small wooden or Schleich animals

• crayons and a small pad of paper

• a mini container of play-dough

• finger puppets

• some small cars

• a big rubber dice

• playmobil puppets

• a few Lego bricks

• an unbreakable mirror

• mini books

Now keep yourself and your kids to the rule: ONLY for in restaurants or for on the plane!

xxx Esther