My Baby's Book Bag

Happy Wednesday!  Today's whateva is my new favorite bag - ever.  Ok, so maybe I'm partial (since I did make it).  Naaaah, it is that awesome ;)  My little Stinkeroo and I go to the library at least once a week and we most often leave with an armful of books.  A library bag has been on my to-make list for awhile and then I remembered about this post on MADE.  Oooh baby, now we have a project! 

I didn't take pictures all along the fusing process, because I followed Dana's directions.  The only difference is that I used thinner bags from our grocery store, so it took 10 layers on a medium-high heat setting to fuse a nice sheet of plastic.  Now I'm not gonna lie here - it is a PAIN in the butt to find just the right combination of plastic layers and heat, but once I had it down I rolled them off pretty quick. 

I needed 3 pieces of fused plastic for this little bag.  I wasn't terribly concerned with the exact size (especially since I was only making one) so my measurements are a little on the wonky side:

• front and back measure 9 1/2 x 10 1/2
• sides measure 4 1/2 x 10 1/2
• bottom measures 9 1/2 x 4 1/2
• handles measure  11 x 1 3/4

Since I like a little bit of fancy, I also cut up a Dollar Store placemat that was just waiting for a project.  I used strips of the blue backing for a little rolled top on the bag and the pocket and the plaid front for the letters, pocket and inside of the handles.

The letters  printed from Word using Arial Bold in a 200 point font size. I printed them off, cut them out and used the paper as my pattern on the plaid fabric.


The measurement for the blue edge strips are two pieces at 9 1/2 x 2 and two pieces of 4 1/2 x 2. I simply folded the blue fabric over the edge and sewed a straight line across.

The pocket is 9 1/2 x 2 1/4. I added the blue rolled edge to clean up the edge. I like the frayed look on the top of the bag, but I didn't like it so much for the pocket (I'm weird, I know).

I didn't take pictures of each step, but here's a go at my process:

1. fuse plastic
2. measure & cut all pieces from plastic
3. measure & cut top edge strips, handle accents and pocket
4. print letters and use paper letters as a pattern

1. pin letters to front and sew them on
2. pin pocket edge to pocket and sew on pocket
3. run stitch up the center of the pocket to create 2 pockets
4. pin blue edge strips to front, back and side pieces and sew
5. pin handle lining to handles (right side out and top stitch) and sew
6. in the center of each handle, fold in half lengthwise (plastic facing out) and stitch at the very center to make the handles more comfortable

Assemble the bag (all pieces are sewn wrong sides together and top stitched with a zig zag)

1. pin front piece to bottom piece and sew
2. pin back piece to bottom piece and sew
3. pin side to front piece and sew
4. pin side piece to back piece and sew (this is where it does get a little tricky to hold everything together)
5. pin side bottom to bottom piece and sew
6. repeat steps 3 - 5 for the other side piece
7. to add the handles, just pin on and top stitch in a square and then x the center for extra support (I used white thread for this to make it less noticeable)

The hardest thing about this bag is fusing the plastic - everything else is pretty basic sewing. Here she is all finished:

And for the record, the Munchkin will always be my baby :)