Sophie was pretty delighted when I told her I'd be making a library bag and was ever efficient at helping me pick out material. Unsurprisingly: trains. It's a green version of the blue train print I made a dress for her out of way back before Rachel was born. I've had it in the drawer for a year or two now, so it was good to see it get some use.
Speaking of fabric that had been in the drawer for a while, that denim was a remnant that my mum picked up from Lincraft, when it was still at Garden City. If you are any sort of south side local of Brisbane, you'll know that Lincraft haven't been at Garden City for about 15 years. So it was about time that denim got used really! I also used a fun animal print for Rachel's bag that I had grabbed at Spotlight (a year or two ago now as well!) for $4 a metre. I've used it before in a cot bumper.
Yay for using up stuff rather than going out for new. On that note, I also went through my bag collection and found one that was simply falling apart and helped it fall apart some more so I could reuse the magnetic snap. Yes! I also, cut up the first backpack I made for Sophie (which unfortunately was made with the same red fabric I used for mum's ill-fated birthday present, that turned everything red rather than washing like normal fabric) and reused the velcro and the adjustable strap thingys too. I also managed to scavenge another set of adjustable strap thingys from a backpack Sarah and her Steve were throwing away too, so not a penny spent!
I had a look at some backpack tutorials, as well as referencing some great bags made by my favourite blogger, ikatbag, (that's where I copied the shoulder strap shapes) and then just winged it from there. Overall a good turnout. I wanted the shoulder straps to be padded, but I didn't have any scrap quilting batting, so I just stuffed them with stuffing and quilted over them (patterned on Sophie's and free motion on Rachel's). They are a little puffy but they do the job.
They are a bit matchy, but not too much. They also have inside pockets (made from scraps) which I kinda thought for library cards, but I'm not sure about trusting the girls with them yet.
The girls are pretty delighted with them and I let them pick some iron on motifs (also from the stash - honestly, I've no idea where they came from!) to add afterwards. The day I finished making them, the power had been off all morning and I'd done as much prep work by hand as I could. When the power finally came back on at 1:00pm, (thankfully three out of four kids were sleeping) I skipped gleefully off to Sally. The girls put them on and wore them all afternoon. I wish I had photos.
To the library!
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