Bitty backpacks
My awesome advisor (I can never decide if that is spelled with "E" or with "O" and Firefox thinks "O" is wrong but I prefer the look of "advisor" to "adviser" because it seems more active, so I'm not going to look it up, so there) ... anyway, let's start over.
My awesome advisor and his wife have two little boys, twins named Oliver and Hugo. They are now about 18 months old. Actually, Steve and Stephanie now have *three* little boys, as baby Henry was born at the end of January, in the midst of that huge snow and ice storm that stopped Cincinnati in its tracks. So they really have three little boys, but these backpacks are for the two older little boys, the twins. Baby Henry gets a different present, one I shall mention in due course. Hugo and Oliver get presents for two reasons. First, because I *meant* to make them presents when they were born, and went so far as to actually buy fabric for said presents, but failed to then complete the presents. And second, because I think newly-minted big brothers are just as worthy of celebrating as newly-arrived baby brothers. (And third, because taking presents to a baby and not to toddlers in the same house is a sure-fire way of starting tantrums, in my so-far limited experience.)
I thought long and hard about what I could make for the boys. I didn't really want to make pillows, or soft toys - not sure why, I just didn't. I've been in a bags mood lately, but I'm not really sure that boys carry tote-bags. (Male [or female] friends are welcome to put me straight on that point). So I decided to make some (hopefully) toddler-sized backpacks instead. This was a free-form project, built using a pattern straight out of my head.
Basically, these are just rectangular drawstring bags, around 9 x 11 inches each, that have straps sewn onto the backs. They're not particularly ergonomic, but they're also not particularly heavy-duty. I'm envisioning these carrying a book, a stuffed toy or a ball, and a snack, rather than a weekend getaway's worth of toddler entertainments.
To make the bags more visually entertaining, I used black broadcloth for the back, and pieced the front of each bag in a quasi-log cabin style block, using stashed cotton fabric (and one stashed twill, the yellow, which comes from the button stoles I coordinated making as a fundraiser for SDD in 2003, remember, girls?). Yes, the center panel is fabric that I also used for the little tote bag for Lydia. In fact, I had purchased that panel fabric for the never-made baby presents for Hugo and Oliver. I like the idea of giving twins (especially little twins) things that are similar but not identical. [gaiadea and geminid may feel free to excoriate me for this in the comments.] So that panel fabric seemed perfect - matching colorways, but squares in some panels and circles in the other. In order to make the bags not identical, I reversed the log cabinish design. Hugo's is red at the top, and Oliver's bag is yellow at the top. I embroidered each boy's name at the top of his bag using some very bright green cotton embroidery floss.
The front of both backpacks are lined with more black broadcloth to cover the seams, using French seams so that the seams are all hidden. If I had been feeling more ambitious I probably would have quilted the bags, but I wasn't feeling particularly ambitious so I didn't. Like I said, light-weight bags, not heavy duty ones. The straps are pieced from more of the panel fabric, matching the central panel (so Hugo's has blocks and Oliver's has circles); the backs of the straps are more black broadcloth. Have I mentioned that I love my fabric stash right now? (Though I haven't had an excuse to go to the fabric store since before Christmas ...)
I'm pretty pleased with how the backpacks turned out, and hope that the boys will enjoy using them. I'm planning to give them away just as soon as the kids and Stephanie get over their colds and I can go visit.
If I were making more backpacks I would probably do a more traditional log-cabin style front, with a smaller center panel and more piecing, and I would at least top-stitch if not quilt the front. I would also make the button-holes that I used for the drawstring a lot smaller (so that it doesn't slip out as easily), and maybe place them off-center so as not to obscure the embroidery. And I would probably use a light-weight interfacing in the straps to make them a little sturdier.
Total cost: for each bag, using stashed fabric and notions ... let's say about $3-5. Or we can say $0, since the fabric was purchased so long ago and was in the stash.
Total fabric use: for each bag, somewhere south of 1/4 of a yard.
Total time investment: for both bags, around 3 hours total.
My awesome advisor and his wife have two little boys, twins named Oliver and Hugo. They are now about 18 months old. Actually, Steve and Stephanie now have *three* little boys, as baby Henry was born at the end of January, in the midst of that huge snow and ice storm that stopped Cincinnati in its tracks. So they really have three little boys, but these backpacks are for the two older little boys, the twins. Baby Henry gets a different present, one I shall mention in due course. Hugo and Oliver get presents for two reasons. First, because I *meant* to make them presents when they were born, and went so far as to actually buy fabric for said presents, but failed to then complete the presents. And second, because I think newly-minted big brothers are just as worthy of celebrating as newly-arrived baby brothers. (And third, because taking presents to a baby and not to toddlers in the same house is a sure-fire way of starting tantrums, in my so-far limited experience.)
I thought long and hard about what I could make for the boys. I didn't really want to make pillows, or soft toys - not sure why, I just didn't. I've been in a bags mood lately, but I'm not really sure that boys carry tote-bags. (Male [or female] friends are welcome to put me straight on that point). So I decided to make some (hopefully) toddler-sized backpacks instead. This was a free-form project, built using a pattern straight out of my head.
Basically, these are just rectangular drawstring bags, around 9 x 11 inches each, that have straps sewn onto the backs. They're not particularly ergonomic, but they're also not particularly heavy-duty. I'm envisioning these carrying a book, a stuffed toy or a ball, and a snack, rather than a weekend getaway's worth of toddler entertainments.
To make the bags more visually entertaining, I used black broadcloth for the back, and pieced the front of each bag in a quasi-log cabin style block, using stashed cotton fabric (and one stashed twill, the yellow, which comes from the button stoles I coordinated making as a fundraiser for SDD in 2003, remember, girls?). Yes, the center panel is fabric that I also used for the little tote bag for Lydia. In fact, I had purchased that panel fabric for the never-made baby presents for Hugo and Oliver. I like the idea of giving twins (especially little twins) things that are similar but not identical. [gaiadea and geminid may feel free to excoriate me for this in the comments.] So that panel fabric seemed perfect - matching colorways, but squares in some panels and circles in the other. In order to make the bags not identical, I reversed the log cabinish design. Hugo's is red at the top, and Oliver's bag is yellow at the top. I embroidered each boy's name at the top of his bag using some very bright green cotton embroidery floss.
The front of both backpacks are lined with more black broadcloth to cover the seams, using French seams so that the seams are all hidden. If I had been feeling more ambitious I probably would have quilted the bags, but I wasn't feeling particularly ambitious so I didn't. Like I said, light-weight bags, not heavy duty ones. The straps are pieced from more of the panel fabric, matching the central panel (so Hugo's has blocks and Oliver's has circles); the backs of the straps are more black broadcloth. Have I mentioned that I love my fabric stash right now? (Though I haven't had an excuse to go to the fabric store since before Christmas ...)
I'm pretty pleased with how the backpacks turned out, and hope that the boys will enjoy using them. I'm planning to give them away just as soon as the kids and Stephanie get over their colds and I can go visit.
If I were making more backpacks I would probably do a more traditional log-cabin style front, with a smaller center panel and more piecing, and I would at least top-stitch if not quilt the front. I would also make the button-holes that I used for the drawstring a lot smaller (so that it doesn't slip out as easily), and maybe place them off-center so as not to obscure the embroidery. And I would probably use a light-weight interfacing in the straps to make them a little sturdier.
Total cost: for each bag, using stashed fabric and notions ... let's say about $3-5. Or we can say $0, since the fabric was purchased so long ago and was in the stash.
Total fabric use: for each bag, somewhere south of 1/4 of a yard.
Total time investment: for both bags, around 3 hours total.