I’ve got a quick-ish back-to-school (is it really back for someone who has never gone to school?). Anya has been wanting a backpack for school – more because Daniel Tiger has one than any actual need for it. We googled toddler backpack and found a really cute owl one from Moda’s BakeShop.

Selecting the project took under an hour – Anya likes owls. Finding the pattern, though … that was an embarrassing number of hours over the next two days. I finally ended up on the designer’s Flicker group and found a comment with someone else who totally loved the design and wanted to make it … but couldn’t find the pattern referenced in the tutorial. Answer: if you scroll down to the bottom & open the ‘printer friendly’ version … it’s not just a printer-friendly version of the tutorial. It’s got the pattern appended to the end.

Finding a piping got rather challenging – the site with the best price on the fabrics I wanted had almost no piping. I didn’t want black or white, and I didn’t want to order it from another site (5$ shipping on 3$ worth of piping, not a deal). Checked out the options at JoAnn’s, but didn’t find any I liked there either. Then I found a great tutorial on making your own piping, and I’m rather excited to try it. I found a good write-up on using piping too – hopefully the piping will be a professional looking touch.

I’ve got a spotted twill fabric for the bag and a pink quilting cotton for the piping.

And some cute birds for the laminated interior.

I’m not going to make the interior pocket, but I am thinking about lining the front pocket with the laminated fabric. If any crayons/pens/etc get tossed in there, they won’t seep through and ruin the bag. Maybe I’m being extra-paranoid, but I just ruined a purse by leaving it in the car … and the handful of crayons that I keep in there melted into the fabric. If I make a three layer owl body – twill & laminate on the front, then another laminate attached to the bag – I’ve got some safety. I am also thinking about adding a little batting to the front twill/laminate sandwich & stitching some zigzag’s to suggest feathers.

I am also thinking about embroidering the eyes and beak – saves trying to applique the little pieces onto the face, and I will be able to get a cuter look than if I try to do it in fabric.