Friday, August 29, 2008

The "Boy Bag"

We've mostly designed for women, mommies, teens, and little girls - but recently we were inspired to add little boys to our list of people with cool bag needs!

Last Christmas, our family exchanged names for Christmas gifts. I got my niece's name to buy for. She is such a beautiful little girl and a definate girly girl, I thought she would love a purse and some fun jewelry. I designed her a little turquoise and white polka dotted bag with a bright red flower on the front with a button center. After I made it, my little boy found it hanging in my studio, shoved all his trucks and cars inside and started toting it around. And that's when I thought, "maybe boys need bags too".

I quickly created a bag for him (khaki colored with a zipper on the front and a velcro closure on top) and he LOVES it! I did this 7 months ago and he uses it almost everyday! We hang it on a peg in his room along with his baseball hats; when we get ready to go run some errands I tell him to go get his hat and without me saying anything about it, he always grabs his bag.

He crams his favorite cars he's been playing with in it and carries it along with us and it keeps him so occupied during our errands that I have come to adore this idea of having a "boy bag". Sometimes he carries his fruit snacks and sippy cup in it, depending on his needs or wants for the outing.

When my mother-in-law came to visit last week she noticed the "boy bag" my little guy toted around with him everywhere we went and she raved about it all week. Everytime we go shopping at kid stores like Pottery Barn Kids or Baby Gap or Gymboree, mommies stop us and comment on my little boy's bag. I told Christina about it and off we went, designing "boy bags". We've started a line of them on our website and hope to spread the word!

My little man with his bag on a few outings ...

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Why the name Teresamia??


We've been asked many times about the name of the company and this being our first post, we thought it would be a good idea to clear that up and introduce ourselves. "Teresamia" is the joining of both our middle names. Francesca TERESA and Christina MIA.

We started designing and making fabric bags when we lived together in the same house with our families in New Jersey. We had both recently had babies (born 8 weeks apart from each other) and were frustrated with the bag options we found. We wanted diaper bags with TONS of pockets and we wanted day bags that were cute and had long straps to wear across the body so we had our hands free. We just got tired of looking at the same stores for our bag needs and never feeling satisfied with our bag purchases.

So, Christina started drawing up designs for bags and Francesca started sewing away and rummaging through our mom's vintage fabrics in her sewing closet. It became a fun creative outlet for both of us to talk about while sitting on the couch side by side nursing our newborns and that was the beginning of Teresamia!

We decided to start this blog and attach a link to our site because so many people want to know why we named certain bags certain names and how we come up with the designs. We are inspired by a variety of things and decided to give people a little background on the bags they buy. Most of the bags are inspired by interesting people or experiences and we thought you'd all like to know the history of your unique bags. So, enjoy!