It was cute - it was perfect for her first day of school. She was ready! See?
BUT (isn't there always a but?) when I made the bag I based my measurements on a small stack of folders, notebooks, and a small binder. Well.... after that first day of school she comes home with a HUGE zippered Trapper-Keeper type binder that's about 4 inches thick and way bigger than that stack I measured by. The binder fit in her messenger bag, but barely... there was NO room for a water bottle, pencil bag, or much of anything.
So... take 2. Back to Goodwill and I found a dark chocolate brown pair of cargo capris with cute cinch embellishment at the bottoms of the legs and grommets on the pockets. I was hesitant using capris (less fabric) but really liked it so went with it. Paige went with me to the fabric store to pick out the accent fabric. She chose a green frog and lizard print (no idea why!) - not what I would have picked, but it's HER bag so we went with it.
I also decided to orient the bag the other way... portrait instead of landscape. It's a lot roomer and I was able to add a few extras - like a water bottle holder on the outside (so condenstation from her cold bottle doesn't get any of her papers or stuff damp. The button pocket on the front flap was one from the outer side of the leg of the capris. Pic from the front:
Here's another view of the front showing the water bottle holder better. The legs of the capris could be cinched with an elastic cord. I was running out of fabric so had to piece the water bottle holder, but it's a really nice addition. It's roomy to hold either disposable water bottles or any of her reusable ones.
The other cinch cord went along the upper front of the inside. I don't think she ever really uses this one, but it's cute and can help hold in everything. The front flap pocket are the two angle pockets from the upper front of the pants - the zipper was cut out and those two sides sewn together. I used the accent fabric behind that flap pocket.
Here's her big binder inside the bag. There's still lots of room left for a lunch bag, pencil case, etc. What I forgot to get a picture of is the inside of the bag - along the front (under the cinch cord) are the pockets from the rear of the pants. The inside of the bag is lined with the accent fabric except for that front panel. It was the accent fabric on the ouside (behind the flap pocket) and cargo material on the inside with additional inside pockets.
Here's the front cinched up a little:
And one more view of the front showing the flap pocket - you can see stray papers down in there...
And finally, here's the back. This is the other outer leg pocket. I did end up running out of fabric from the cargo capris and did not have enough to do one side of the strap with it. I had to use the froggy fabric for both sides of the strap. Not ideal, but still cute.
However, NOW we're all aware that the pencil case no longer matches... so guess what the next project is?
This is Yukari Takeba from the video game Persona 3:
I don't know why... but this picture just cracks me up. I think it's because A) Blake's mouth is full and B) Erika is eyeing him awfully suspiciously...
For the decorations back at the house, I did end up making several of the large tissue pom poms... but not as many as I'd planned. I also had streamers around the den where all the girls were sleeping.
