Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Super Cute Drawstring Backpack (or at least I think that it is Super Cute)

I just finished this drawstring backpack last night.  I made it for my neighbor’s daughter.  She is on a select volleyball team and wanted a cute backpack to put her shoes and other volleyball items in for games and tournaments.  Her team’s colors are black and white (my favorite team colors).  Madison and her mom picked out the red canvas and the black and white zebra print.  I am not usually an animal print girl, but wow, it really pops on this red canvas. 
Tab to make a drawstring bag into backpack.
I tried to find a good drawstring backpack tutorial online, but was unable to find one.  I did find a drawstring string bag tutorial on the Martha Stewart website and decided to use that as a template and just modify it into a backpack.  Really all I had to do was add the tabs at the bottom and make the string longer to wrap through them.  I say “really”, but I was super close with my seam ripper again yesterday.



ZigZag Stich
For the lettering, I just found a font that I liked and increased the size to what I wanted, printed it, cut it out, and used it as a template for the fabric.  That was the easy part.  After cutting out the fabric and before sewing the bag together, I placed the letters and number on the fabric, pined it, and appliquéd it to the fabric.  I used the zigzag stich to appliqué.  I am not really good at that part, so there was a lot of seam ripping (again), and re-appliquéing.  One thing that I can say, is that I am really good a ripping out seams.


My new bestfriend:The Seam Ripper

The retractable blade is what makes it so good.





 I made the string out of the zebra fabric. I first made bias tape by cutting 2” strips out of the fabric.  I then folded the strips on the long sides in to meet in the middle and ironed it.  Then I folded the strips again in the middle, ironed, and sewed an edge s that the strips would not come unfolded while on the bag.
Homemade Bias Tape

Overall I think that the bag turned out really cute and hopefully Madison will really like he new drawstring backpack.

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