I made this bag for Candace’s son’s birthday. I am always trying to think up gifts for little boys that are not another toy, so I came up with this scaled down backpack to hold their toys. I chose corduroy for the outside of the bag which I wanted to be able to withstand a little boys’ abuse. The inside fabric is a cute print of wild animals. You could go in so many directions with this by choosing different fabrics or embellishments for a boy or girl.

1. Decide what size you want the bag to be taking into consideration the height of your child. I made this according to the length of my son’s jacket. Cut your lining fabric 2-3 inches longer than your outer fabric. I thought the corduroy might be too stiff for the drawstring so I made the top part out of the cotton print. I thought this was cute too, adding the colorful border.

2. Line up the longer and shorter piece of fabric evenly, place the right sides together of the two fabrics, and sew the seam up to the drawstring strip. Leave this open so the drawstring can be inserted. Then flip the lining fabric over, fold allowing for the width of the strap or ribbon you want to use for the drawstring/arm straps. Iron along the top edge to make a crease. Be sure to take into consideration that the lengths of the fabrics match at the bottom.

3. Line up right sides again and sew a seam along one long side. Center this seam just sewn and sew along the bottom of the bag.

4. Turn bag inside out. I cut the fabric at a slight angle where my drawstring opening was left unsewn and finished the holes off by sewing a blanket stitch around the edge. You could also use a button-holer to make finished holes.

5. Measure your straps by calculating the width of your bag X 2 plus the length needed to reach from the drawstring hole to the bottom of the bag. I folded the corduroy with wrong sides together, turned the edge over, ironed my hem and sewed on top of the fabric. I ran this strap through and attached in the bottom corners with a button but this could be done in many different ways. The second bag I make like this will be much easier than this first one now that I have it figured out. I would make the strap of cotton fabric or heavy ribbon next time and perhaps embroider a name on before sewing the 2 fabrics together to personalize, but I still think it turned out cute!