Poco Mountain Girl

I had a whole list of things to make for Zia’s birthday as soon as I leafed through Oliver + S Little Things to Sew. But I had to be realistic. If I didn’t pick just one or two projects, I’d be completely overwhelmed. Besides, the library (for whatever reason) won’t allow renewals of that sweet book, so my time was limited.

When I sat down and thought about it, I decided on this backpack. There’s something about a kid-size backpack that’s so fun and practical, especially when it’s loaded with favorite treasures and lugged around everywhere. This one will be loaded with toy horses, I predict…and lugged around everywhere. And after Tuesday, it will probably have chocolate ice cream stains on it.

The Oliver + S version features a backpack stylized into a penguin. It’s pretty cute, but I wanted something more along the lines of the Indian princess dress I had already made. I picked up a Southwestern-looking remnant at the fabric store, found some yellow calico in my stash for a lining, and used what was left of the rawhide trim from the Indian dress.

I love working with Oliver + S patterns, and this one was no different. It was clear and simple, with good instructions and drawings. The only tiny hangups I had with the process were 1) I accidentally bought a separating zipper instead of a closed-end zipper, and 2) I had a hard time finding the 1 1/2″ strap adjusters at my local fabric shop.

But I stitched up the end of the zipper into the casing and that solved that. David found the strap adjusters online for under $3 including shipping, and they came in just a couple of days.

The backpack is a simple design with one zipper, a hanger strap at the top, and adjustable shoulder straps. There is a single divided pocket inside. I love the simplicity of it all; pop in your stuff, zip it up, slip it on, and away you go.

I guess my Indian girl will head into the woods and come back with her bag filled with rocks, sticks, and pieces of the forest. Today she brought me a pocketful of mushrooms and told me they were for my birthday, but I could have them early. I was thrilled, of course. I love that she gives me things from her heart.

And this little backpack is straight from my heart to you, Almost Five-Year Old Who Loves Chocolate Ice Cream Cones.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2012 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Little Redhead Girl, Making Stuff, Stitchin' Time. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.