WordPress Swag

Sometimes I open my mouth and by the time I realize what I’ve said, it is too late to take the words back. I went down this road again recently at a WordPress Meetup event. I am always motivated after these monthly meetings and apparently the adrenaline kicked in a little early on this particular evening. Someone had shown up with WordPress swag as gifts for a contest. I don’t know what it is about swag that gets me excited, I just know that it does. I’m not sure, but I think winning both a coffee cup and sunglasses added to my already altered state of mind. Anyway, I opened my mouth and said, “I can turn that t-shirt into a backpack and bring it back next month.” In a nano second, the t-shirt appeared in my hands.

I was still feeling the excitement on the drive home. I had won a contest, met some new folks, and was filled with ideas. Life was GRAND!

A few days later, reality set in. I had never made a back-pack out of a t-shirt, but I had a pattern. Unfortunately, my habit of test sewing a project took over my sanity. More often than not, my finished projects are scrutinized by fellow sewers; this time it was going into the hands of those who were going to judge it on an entirely different level. I knew I had to improve the stability of the final bag. so a woven cotton lining and corded straps were added.

The bag was finished with a few days to spare. My serger became a casualty and needs to be taken to the tech, but all in all everything worked out.

On the evening of the unveiling, I wandered into the meeting nervous as hell. What would this audience think? My fears quickly vanished as familiar faces came into sight. I handed over the backpack to Lance, the WP guru guy who helps run these meetings. He asked me later if I wanted it back, to which I replied that I had made it for him and he could do whatever he wanted. He then said he was going to send it to San Francisco to the WordPress Museum.