Backpacks for Camp NanaB

For this year's Camp NanaB (the week of activities at my mother-in-law's house), I sewed each "camper" a backpack to hold their treasures.  We used them to pack the kids' things when we went paddle boating and for a picnic at Stoney Creek Metropark, but otherwise the kids basically ignored them.  That's cool though -- I made them more to amuse myself than for any true practical purpose.  I'm pretty annoyed at myself for not having taken cute photos of these backpacks with the kids wearing them, but c'est la vie.

This one was for my nephew, Quinn.

That was a buttload of grommets to install.  Grommets look cool, but they are kind of a pain in the butt to put in when going through many layers of fusible fleece!  When I finished the twelfth one, I swore I would never use them again.  That's likely to change though because I love them too much.

The backpack for my niece, Maisie, had strawberries on it.  Peter's has flames, of course, and Charlotte's has cool cats.  Here is a shockingly horrid cell phone pic I took of them the night I finished them.  I could have at least moved some of the detritus off of the counter before I snapped the shot!

I used a tutorial for a String Style Backpack with Crossover Pockets from Sew4Home.  The tutorial was great. but padding the crossover pockets with batting was a bit of overkill.  The backpacks are a little difficult for the kids to open and close, but practice will probably solve that.  The straps ended up quite long for the kids, so I had to shorten them (which compromised the ability of the bag to lie flat when all the way open).  In the future, I would probably shorten the whole backpack a little so the straps could be shorter without issue.

Silvana's birthday backpack

Charlotte has declared Silvana to be her bestest friend in the world, except for Shelby.  Keep in mind that these girls have never had a playdate outside of school in their lives, and you will quickly realize that Charlotte has a penchant for hyperbole similar to Corey and me.  Regardless, when Charlotte was invited to Silvana's sixth birthday party I knew I had to make something adorable for such a sweet little girl.  When I volunteered at school this week, I asked Silvana what her favorite colors are, and she answered (of course) "pink and purple".  Charlotte has also talked endlessly about Silvana's love for cats, so I figured a pink Hello Kitty lined drawstring backpack would be just the thing for her.

The outside is a gaudy hot pink duck cloth.  I grabbed a few things from the Target dollar bins to put with the backpack to complete the gift.  The drawstrings are black parachute cord.  Here is the backpack closed:

The lining is the same quilting cotton fabric as the appliqué on the outside.

Somehow, I conned Corey into taking Charlotte to the party this afternoon.  I have been to plenty of parties at Pump It Up and have no desire to attend any more if I can help it.  Not sure when the kids are finally old enough that the parents don't have to go to these birthday parties and stand around awkwardly pretending to have fun, but it can't be too soon for me.

Birthday backpack

Charlotte's classmate, Joslyn, had her sixth birthday party last weekend.  As a gift, I sewed one of Sweet Bee Buzzing's Lined Drawstring Backpacks (just like the one I sewed for Maisie last summer, with different appliqué and fabrics).  Here it is, open:

I added some appliqué just for fun, using the lining fabric.  The red fabric is canvas (left over from Barb's baskets) and the polka dotted fabric is a quilting weight cotton.

For the straps, I used some 1"-wide cotton webbing.  For fun, I triple stitched some red and turquoise on them.  Each strap is 52" long, so it took a REEEEEEEEALLY long time to do all that stitching.  It does make the straps a lot more fun, though.

Here is a shot with the bag closed.

I love the lining fabric.  Multi-colored polka dots are always fun.

A note about the tutorial -- the instructions say to leave a gap for the straps in the lining.  Then, in the comments, a reader points out to the author that those gaps are not really necessary and the author agreed.  I hadn't read the comments before I sewed Maisie's backpack, but I remember wondering why the heck those gaps were in the lining.  This time, I read the comments first and skipped that unnecessary (but totally harmless) step!  

Birthday backpack for sweet Maisie K.

For Maisie's third birthday this weekend, I am at a complete loss for what to get her for her birthday.  I already made her a bucket for her bike and a "3" t-shirt, but what do you get the girl who only wants to ride her bike and play with her older brother's cars and trucks?  Well, I hope she likes this backpack.  Maybe she can stick her lovies in there for safe-keeping?

I am bordering on stalking-level adoration for the sewing tutorials that the lady behind Sweet Bee Buzzings puts out (I have recently made her Straight-Sided Flat-Bottomed Pouch, her Double-Zip Wristlet, and her She's a Brick Pouch).  I want to be her friend and have half the sewing mojo she does.    So, I guess it was only natural that I continue this trend and sew SBB's Lined Drawstring Backpack.

Maisie's favorite color is green, so I appliqued some green flowers onto some dark denim.  I used my favorite parachute cord for the backpack's drawstrings (seriously, I need to start buying that stuff in bulk).

The lining (and the fabric for the flowers) is from an old sheet that my mom and I cut apart and hemmed to be used in a pack 'n' play a few years ago.  So this is actually the third life for this fabric.  I love using old sheets -- they are nice-feeling fabric and usually the print is actually on grain (unlike a lot of quilter's cottons I have bought).

I tried to get one of my kids to model the backpack.  Charlotte said "no thanks."  Peter put it on, but then proceeded to tear around the house and refuse to actually stand still for a picture.  So you will just have to trust me that it's the perfect size for a three-year-old (though I am toying with creating something to hold the straps together in the front so the bag doesn't slip right off Maisie's little shoulders).  I love how it turned out and now I kind of want to make myself one in a bigger size for carrying supplies when the kids ride their bikes to the park.  I tried sticking the things I wanted to carry in the kids' bike baskets, but they informed me there was no room after their own toys had been stuffed in there.

Erin's past projects

I first taught myself how to crochet right after grad school, in the summer of 2000, in an effort to combat boredom during the weeks between graduation and starting my job in Chicago.  For the next 9 years, I crocheted a lot of doilies and afghans, but I sometimes took a year off in between projects, so I wasn't all that prolific. Then, Sonia was born in the spring of 2009, and I stopped crocheting altogether.  My brain just couldn't handle childcare AND being creative.

But, as Sonia got older (she's about to turn 4), I started thinking about crocheting again.  Niki got me the Amineko book (which is utterly hilarious and awesome), so I picked up my hooks and gave crocheting another try.  The first blue amineko (that's Japanese for crochet cat) was a success, so I crocheted a little pink one.  Niki finally convinced me to give Pinterest a try during this past Christmas, and when I saw the insane amount of awesome free crochet patterns available on the internet these days, I got instantly and hopelessly addicted to crocheting once again.

Here are a few of the projects that I've made since Christmas:

Octonauts!!  Because Octonauts is a relatively new cartoon and series of books, the British and American crocheters of the world took it upon themselves to create their own toys.  People posted a bunch of free patterns!  I found Kwazii (the orange cat) here, Captain Barnacles (the polar bear) here, Tunip (the turnip-fish vegetal) here, Peso (the penguin) here, and I free-handed the rest. These guys were some of my first forays into the world of amigurumi (that's the Japanese word for crocheted or knitted plush figure), and now that I've completed a lot more amigurumi work, I kind of want to go back and re-do the Octonauts to make them better.  But Sonia barely even watches this show anymore (it was a brief love affair), so it seems like a bit of a waste.

Hello Kitty hats for my two favorite girls in the world, Sonia and Charlotte!  I found the pattern here.

Batman hat for Peter!  I found the pattern here.

After I made the Hello Kitty and Batman hats, I wanted to try to find a dragon hat to make for Sonia's BFF, Ike.  None of the patterns I found on the internet looked all that great (I couldn't even find a good pattern to buy!), so I decided to create one myself by copying an awesome crocheted dragon hat picture that I found on the internet. I used the Hello Kitty base hat design and then emulated the picture as well as I could.  Unfortunately, I only have cell phone pictures of the hat because I keep forgetting to take better pictures of Ike the Dragon!

Crocheted purse!  I made one for me and one for Niki....  She lined them both with her mad sewing skills.  Niki, we need to take pictures of the linings!  I bought the leather strap from Joann Fabrics and found the pattern for the purse here.

Ladybug backpack!  Free pattern from Red Heart Yarns, my favorite cheap yarn to use!

Owl change purse! I decided to try out using a clutch clasp that I found at Joann Fabrics by adding it to this pattern.

Ella's dinosaur purse!  This was completely freehanded because as far as I could tell, no crocheted dinosaur purse exists on the internet either for free or to buy....

Sonia's Easter basket.... Freehanded as well because I wasn't able to find a pattern that I liked.  I did model it after this pattern a bit.

Max's Yoda hat!  I still need to tweak the forehead wrinkles a bit, but it turned out okay.  I made it using a pattern posted on a craft forum, and the pattern wasn't entirely complete or detailed, so I had to do a lot of extrapolating.

This post just scratches the surface of all the crocheting I've done over the past 4 months....  When I find or take more pictures of my projects, I'll post them!