Backpack Tutorial

My daughter has been using a beach bag for school this year.  She got it for her birthday last March, and fell in love with it.  It's just a cheap plastic oversize tote with colorful polka dots, but my girl knows what she likes and would not be talked out of it.  FINALLY she has gotten over it.  I let her pick out some fabric for a new book bag, but I had a hard time finding a tutorial for the style she wanted - just plain old, traditional zippered backpack with a pocket in the front.  I found plenty of toddler, drawstring (which I HATE!!), overly complicated, just plain funky...so I took some pointers from the ones I read through, and came up with this!

 My pretty Pookie with her hot new bag!

To start out, I created a template based on an old backpack we had hanging around.  I drew a rectangle 12"by 18", then rounded the bottom corners with a small circle (I used a votive candle), and the top corners with a candy dish, about a 12"diameter.  Just line your circles up with the edges and trace.

Ta da!  Now from this simple template cut 2 pieces of your outside fabric, two pieces of liner, and two pieces of heavy interfacing.  Go ahead and iron together (or baste if your interfacing isn't iron on) your front and back pieces: outside, interface, lining, with right sides showing. 

Next, I made the zipper pocket on the front.  For this I traced another piece of outer fabric and inner fabric from the bottom of my template, about 10" tall.  I just cut the top of the template off straight across.  Then, I installed the zipper on my pocket.  Detailed instructions on this method here, but these are the broad strokes.  Line up your inner and outer fabrics right sides facing and draw a long thin rectangle where you want the zipper to go (about 1/2" wide and at least 1" away from top and sides of pocket).  Sew the fabric together on the rectangle you marked.  Then cut a line inside and down the length of the rectangle, and a "Y" shape to the 4 corners (forgot to take pics of this, but its all on the other tute if this is confusing).  Then simply turn it out so wrong sides are facing, and you should have a nice neat rectangle shaped hole.   Line your zipper up in the opening, and topstitch it in place.

Voila, you have cheated the zipper gods again, and left your zipper foot peacefully collecting dust.  I ironed the top under, and then basted it on the bag front with a 1/4" seam.  The sides are still unfinished.

Almost forgot!  I cut those little triangles on the bottom corners to help when I sew on the sides.  It just helps turn the corner. 

Okay, now for the sides.  The ones on the bag I was using as a reference were 5" wide, so I cut pieces 6"x11" from the outer, inner and interface fabrics and ironed them together for the bottom of the bag.  I then cut two 5"x12" pieces from the outer fabric to go up the sides of my bag, and sewed them onto the bottom piece.  You could interface and line them, but I didn't bother.

Those silly cats are my bag lining.  Just a reminder, this is for a first grade girl (cats and hot pink making sense now, right?)

Next, prep the main zipper.  I cut two strips from my outer fabric about 4" x 24" for my 22" zipper.  Since the zipper can show on this, I simply placed a strip on the zipper, wrong sides facing, and seamed it like normal.  Then ironed the selvedge over and repeated on the other side.  My zipper foot has such a nice cozy little receptacle that I hate to disturb it. 

You can see in the pic I trimmed it down to 6" - I did it asymmetrically, but you can put the zip in the middle if you want. 

Now to attach your backpack zipper, sides and bottom to the front of the bag.  If you are confident in your measuring skills, you can trim the excess off your bottom sides, sew them to your zipper panel to make a loop, and then sew it on your bag face.  If your measuring precision is more C- like mine, you can cheat.

I found the center of my zipper panel, and pinned it to the center of my bag face, right sides facing.  Then I sewed it outward from the center with a 1/2"seam, stopping a bit short of the end on both sides.

I did the same thing with the bottom, centering on the bag and then sewing outward.

I don't know why blogger wanted to turn this picture sideways, but I think you still get the point.

Once I got close to where the zipper was ending, I folded under the bottom-side piece, ironed it down, pinned it to the zipper panel, and seamed the two together.

Then this:

(Really?  Why, blogger?)

Then I finished sewing the side to the front of the bag.  I repeated the same nonsense fudging-job on the other side.

Whew!  Almost done, don’t give up on me now! 

Straps!  I decided that since this is for one girl, I did not want to mess with adjustable straps.  So I went back to my original paper template, and placed it on a new piece of paper.  I marked on the paper template where the straps should connect – about 1/3 in on the top, and on the bottom corners.  The top of the straps are about 2 ¾” wide and 1 ¾”on the bottom (that’s with ease).  Then I removed the front template, and with these guides I eyeballed a “J” shape, and then extended the top and bottom beyond where the edges of the bag front were.  I cut 4 of these from the outer fabric (2 mirror image).  I also cut this shape from some leftover quilt batting I had, but you can just use the interfacing again if you want. 

To assemble, I lined up the batting and one side of the strap and basted lines down the length of the strap.  Then I put another strap piece again the first, right sides facing, and sewed with ¼” selvedge.

BTW, those lines aren’t sloppy because I was sooooooo ready to be done, they are free-formed because I am quirky and unique.

Then just sew the other side together and turn right side out.  The batting/interface should pull through no prob because it is thoroughly basted.

Phew, almost done!  I went ahead and tacked the straps on the back of the bag.  I sewed the tops first, then pinned the bottom and had my muse try it on before sewing it down.

Now sew that beast to the sides, and you are ready for school!