Maya's Backpack, a sewing adventure...

Living in a small town you really don't have a lot of choices for back to school. You can get a back pack at wal-mart, but there will be at least 3 other kids with the exact same one, never fails. Last year I ordered them online, but I waited to long this time and everyone was out of stock.  So this year I thought it would be fun (and economical) to make the kids backpacks. I'm not sure why I thought I could do it, since I had never even installed a zipper before, but apparently that didn't stop me. I did Maya's last weekend, but Xander is going to have to wait until this weekend. I used this pattern by Made by Rae. It's a really good pattern, but I made a lot of adjustments to it. First of all, it's for a todler backpack, so I made it bigger. Then I wanted a lot of pockets, so I had to add those in. Last, my local fabric store (aka True Value Hardware, or the little store with a little bit of everything under the sun) only had bias piping in navy blue. I bought one package for Xander's bag, but Maya didn't want that color, so I left it off. Turns out I should have just used it anyway, because the bag is a little shapeless without it. Oh well, she loves it. On to some pictures!

Here is a side view:

Here is an inside view. I wanted to show the pencil pocket I put in, but you can't see it very well.

All in all I spent $2 on her bag. The fabric is some that I bought a bolt of at a yard sale for $5 a few years ago. I bought it originally to make curtains for our dinning room with. I thought it looked cool, like a deconstructed damask, and the black and white would go great with the red walls. Hubby thought it looked like an anti-pattern and wouldn't let me use it. Stinker. So I had a bolt of lightweight canvas that I've been using for anything I can think of ever since. I worked perfectly for this bag, and I don't think I could have chosen a better fabric for the project. I only purchased a zipper and 1" D rings for the straps. Everything else I already had! Xander's bag will be a bit more expensive, since I'll be using the piping bias, it will be a whole $3, instead of $2.  It turned out to be an actually very easy project, and I can't wait to get to Xander's!