A Bookbag for Kittyboy

Do you know how hard it is to find bookbags in February? So I made one. I had a piece of cream and red striped fabric, kind of a canvas-type cloth, that I thought would be cute, and I hadn't played on my sewing machine for a while. So here it is!
I made it entirely last night. Miss K said at the parent-teacher conference yesterday that starting this Wednesday, he would be bringing home a folder weekly, and so a bookbag would be good to have, but those are scarce this time of year, and they're all huge, bulky, and branded. He doesn't know who Spiderman IS, for crying out loud.


I made it a pillowcase, then cut down the sides about three inches and folded them under so drawstrings could go threw. Had I been planning ahead, of course, I would have just left the top three inches unsewn... but it worked anyway.
I had Husband buy black grosgrain ribbon, an inch wide (I thought just going with black would be easier than matching reds), and cut two big chunks (since I didn't know how much I would need), sewed the end of one to the bottom of the bag, threaded it through one side of the open seam at the top and back through the other. Did the same on the opposite side. Then I had to make some judgement calls as to how long to sew them - I didn't want the arm straps to be WAY long, he's short, but it has to open far enough to put a folder in. I think they ended up being a good length...
And there is some hanging on each side (I finished off the ends), so if he needs it longer I can just take a seam ripper and undo the top stitches and re-sew.

And he likes it!
I'm definitely going to do this again!!! Just think, a reusable shopping bag you can wear on your back!