Football Backpack for Jamie 52 (Family) Projects in 2012: #14

We have some traveling planned for the summer. Our Florida trip has been delayed for now, but that’s a story for another time.  As I was saying, we have some traveling planned for late summer, and Jamie needed a new backpack. He asked for a football backpack, and it so happens that I had multiple pieces of leftover football fabric from various other projects hanging around my sewing studio. (In addition to being one of my 52 (Family) Projects, this is a stash-only project! That means bonus points, right?)

I love my new Playdate Bag pattern, but the backpack is really too small for Jamie at 5 1/2. So, I sized it up just a little, and I think it’s perfect now for that early school age group! If you have the pattern, it’s really easy to size it up. For Jamie, I added an inch to both the width and the height: 1/2″ on each side and 1/2″ on the top and bottom. To match the flap up to the new width, I added 1/2″ to the straight side of each outside curved piece and increased the back of the flap by 1″ in width. I left the length of the flap alone.  I also added an inch to both the padded strap and the webbing strap.  Here’s how the two backpacks look side by side:

Jamie’s new backpack conveniently matches the crayon roll that was my very first family project of the year.

That means that he doesn’t really need the crayon pocket on the inside, so I modified the inside pocket to hold two pencils and any other little things that he needs to take along, like headphones for his Leapster. Isn’t great how when you sew, you can tailor-make something perfect for it’s new owner?

I finished up a few more family projects this week that I’ll share with you next week. This weekend, I’ll be working on shorts for the Little Boys’ Shorts Project at Hopeful Threads along with a quick tutorial for how you can add another little “extra” to them. These are the fabrics that are in the line-up. Aren’t they fun?

Oh, I have to share a funny story from this morning before I go. Jamie pulled the madras shorts that are in my post from July 1st out of his drawer this morning, and as he was pulling them on I asked, “Do you like those shorts?” The response? “Yep! You let me splash in mud puddles in them!” Don’t forget that the Mud Puddle Splashers pattern is a free download this month to sew for charity and then for your own little ones!