Make: Library Sack

by Designing Mom Jackie

Thursday is library day around here. Simon and I pick Graham up from school, stop for some ice cream and then head to the Central Library in downtown Berkeley. It's a fabulous library if you've never been. They have a whole floor dedicated to children, with tons of books, a Good Night Moon inspired reading area, and a huge rocket ship that the kids can climb into. The boys love going there and I love the idea of the spending the afternoon surrounded by all those amazing childhood tales.

In honor of our library ritual, I made Graham a little library sack to hold his books. I asked him what animals he wanted on the bag and he requested two elephants (Babar and Soleil to be exact). Plus he requested that I use red fabric (his favorite color). So I bought a plain canvas sack, dug up some felt and buttons, and had myself a merry hour of hand sewing this little tote.

Supplies:

1) Tote bag (mine is a canvas version that I got at Joanne's for $2.99)

2) Felt

3) Buttons, sequins, ribbons or other decorative additions

4) Needle and thread

To make:

1) Find an image that you like that will work well in silhouette form. You can scour the web, xerox an image from a book, or free-hand if you are are good at the sort of thing. I found a elephant image here and simply enlarged it for the bigger elephant on a copy machine.

2) Pin your pattern onto the felt and cut out the desired shape(s).

3) Pin the cut felt onto the bag.

4) Hand or machine stitch the shape onto your bag.

5) Embellish with buttons, sequins, ribbons to your liking.

6) I didn't have a chance to do this on Graham's bag, but you could also personalize the bag with your child's initial or full name. You could do this with freezer paper stencils, free-hand with fabric paint or if you have the time and patience, embroidery.

Off to the library you go!