A Patchwork Bag (with appliqued initial)

My kids love going to the library to borrow books. They have a designated time when they go at school, to borrow books from the school library plus, we go every few weeks to our local library.

My daughter’s little friend is having a birthday soon, so I made her a little library bag. It’s perfect for taking to the library to borrow books… or for anything else she chooses to use it for. Not only is this a great birthday present, it would make a wonderful Christmas gift for a little person in your life. Its super easy to make, doesn’t require much time and can be made as scrappy as you like.

 

Patchwork Library Bag with Initial

 

Kids love having their names on things, and when it comes to school things, yes yes yes! But when it comes to out of school, I don’t think it’s very safe to have their names emblazoned on things. Who know what creepy people are out there. This is why I’m a big fan of using their initial – it’s still personal, but not TOO personal – if that makes any sense at all.

 

Patchwork Bag

 

This bag was made with the cute new range of fabric called Woodland Spring for Riley Blake Fabrics. The prints have such cute creatures (deer, squirrels, butterflies, foxes) but I have to admit that I really love the floral prints in this range. Florals mixed with little mushrooms. Cuteness plus!

The patchwork consists of 2.5” squares and the ‘initial’ square is 4.5”. This configuration of 6 across and 7 down is the perfect size for a child size bag.

I added a layer of batting and quilted it 1/4” outside of each seam. And because I love adding a little hand stitching, I stitching around the initial with some Aurifil 12wt cotton in a tangerine/coral type of colour.

 

Patchwork Library Bag - hand stitching

 

Here’s a little tip for if you’d like to create applique letters – use your Google Drive to create a new Drawing and then choose Word Art. There are a tonne of fonts available, plus the added bonus that you can create the mirror letter (which is exactly what you need for applique).

For the longest time, I used to create applique patterns using a Word document, then have to trace the design on to the back of the paper, before transferring it to my double sided paper (heat n bond or steam a seam).

Discovering this on Google has been a wonderful new way to create applique designs. Please leave a comment if you’d like further explanation of this – I’m happy to assist.

9 comments

  1. The bag is so cute. 'Never thought about the child's whole name appliqued, the possible danger. Great point, well noted. The initial does seem much safer. I love that your kids still read actual books and visit the library in person. In a world of ebooks and downloads (which are fine- not criticizing them), this is so refreshing to hear. Thank you for the info about fonts also.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, they love books, which makes me very happy. Now that they've seen the first two films,we're on a mission this weekend to find the Harry Potter books at the library.

      Delete
  2. That is just adorable! I may need to make these for all my grandkids this year! Thanks for the idea...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's my pleasure. I hope your grandies love them :)

      Delete
  3. I would love more info on Google Drive for lettering. I have some Christmas ideas and need an efficient way to create appliqué words. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll try to get a little tutorial up with screen shots soon. It really has been a great discovery for me and saves all of the doubling up when using a word document.

      Delete
    2. Thank you! What font did you use...I am playing with google doc now.

      Delete
  4. Lovely bag. I already had a google account so I downloaded the drive app. I just had a play around with some fonts, so thanks for the tip :)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comment. I truly appreciate the time you've taken to leave me a message. I will attempt to answer comments via email.