“mi elefante” mochila- Toddler Backpack

March 3, 2012 at 3:39 pm (Show 'N' Tell)
Tags: backpack, elephant, Embroidery, mi elefante, sewing, toddler

This week I made a toddler-sized backpack for Eli. It was a super fun project for me and I already have an idea for a second one I want to make. I’m kicking myself for somehow losing track of the tutorial I used to make this. I thought I had pinned it, but when I went back to find it to add the link to this post it wasn’t there. A very similar tutorial can be found here however.

I used a well loved pair of linen pants whose seam had split irrepairably for the body of the bag, and the shirt that I gave my husband the first Christmas after we had met for the straps and front pockets.

I embroidered the words “mi elefante” and added a patch with an embroidered elephant to the front.

After I had sewn the front and the back of the bag together I found that I had accidentally used the wrong side of the back fabric piece. The linen is the same on either side, but as this fabric used to be a pair of pants there was the seam from the inside of the pant leg already sewn into the material.

I decided instead of picking it apart and sewing it together again to embellish the seam with embroidery floss. I liked the effect.

I didn’t have any fabric pens that would show up on this fabric so I wrote out the words “mi elefante” on paper in the size I wanted them to be and then just embroidered it on keeping the letter shapes and sizes as close to the original as possible. There are a couple of letters that appear a little bit wonky to me, but overall I think it worked out okay.

Here you can see the two front pockets a little better. The next backpack I make will use the back pockets from these same pants. They button shut. I may end up going back in on this one to add some sort of closure for these pockets as well.

I wish I had a photo of Eli wearing this as it’s really cute on him. But he is napping, and it will be dark out by the time he wakes up.  I want to get this posted today so the chair gets to be the model this time around.

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Update:

Eli woke up a bit earlier than expected, and the days seem to be getting a bit longer. He went out to play in the flower pots and I snapped a few pictures. 🙂 Here are the least blurry ones.

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