Back to School Sewing

I got to do a little bit of sewing for each of the boys at the end of August. I'm really happy to send a little bit of handmade to school with the boys, so I enjoyed doing a few quick projects.

Andrew starts studying in English and French this year, and his school supply list included two waterproof drawstring bags to hold his books for each language seperate.  I thought this would be a fun opportunity to sew for him, and I had already picked up some star wars and superhero fabrics that were supposed to be used for shorts this summer (whoops!).

I was originally going to line these bags with PUL to make them waterproof, but when I was at Fabricville I found this iron-on vinyl that I thought would work better. It was actually a great choice, because it makes them look (as Andrew put it) "real" instead of handmade.

They are pretty basic, lined drawstring bags. The inside is some solid cotton I had laying around (this yellow is all the way from when Andrew was little - its the same fabric as they boys' superhero capes). I originally used gross grain ribbon for the handles, but I quickly realized they would not be strong enough to hold up through the year.

Instead I switched to some handles made from the endless organic duck cotton, et voila! Two very cool and handy bags.

Aaron needed a smock for Kindergarten, and he wanted to make sure he got a piece of the superhero fabric before it was gone. So he got a quick smock made from the pattern in the Sew Liberated  book.

This project took a lot less creativity, as I just followed the pattern to the letter. I made the bias binding out of the same yellow fabric (it never ceases to amaze me how far 2m of something can go) as Andrew's bag lining, and whipped this up in a night. It s a little big right now, but I figure he'll grow into it.

This was a really quick and easy sew - it took me a few hours one night. I felt a little odd when I was dropping off his school supplies the day before he went to school, because all the other kids just had old dad shirts cut short. But Aaron is not the kind of kid to care about that kind of thing, so I think he will enjoy it anyway. And if he doesn't, I can always bring it home and cut up one of Dave's shirts so he "matches" all his friends. Sigh.

So, now both my big boys are off to school all day, 5 days a week. So far we're enjoying the quiet, but we're glad to see them by the end of the day. Here's a parting shot of Aaron's first day on the bus, including our awesome bus drivier: