My oldest boy (Little G) is now in the Sunbeams class in Primary. He loved nursery so much, and his little brother is still in it so I had a feeling the transition from nursery to primary would be hard on him. He has a lot of older friends, so in actuality, he LOVES primary. He gets to see all his friends and see so many people. He starts out like a shy dude, but after all said and done, he is the crazy, outspoken kiddo climbing over and under all the chairs!
In anticipation of a horrible transition, I made him a “special primary bag” that he gets to take to his Sunbeam class with him. He was super excited, especially that it is CAMOUFLAGE! I also made it so that he could bring his scriptures to church every Sunday. The Primary in our ward has a “scripture jar” that gets passed around while everyone is coming in and sitting down. If you bring scriptures, you get to help fill it up with chocolate chips. It’s a cute little thing they do to encourage the kids to bring their scriptures to church. He really wanted to put some chocolate chips in the jar, and now he can!
This is a really easy bag to make, and the dimensions are specific to the size of a Book of Mormon. My sister gave me the directions (over Skype!) and I made it in less than an hour, start to finish, late Saturday night.
Step 1 – cut your fabric
*You need 2 pieces cut at 11” x 18”, one for the lining and one for the outer shell. They can be the same fabric, or different. I liked the different prints (camouflage & olive green), just made it a little more personalized and fun!
*You also need 2 pieces cut at 2.5” x 16” (or however long you want the handles to be). I used a solid black fabric that went well with the camo print. I made Little G’s handles too long, but didn’t want to take apart the whole bag to shorten them. He doesn’t seem to mind (that was with pieces 18” long).
Step 2 – sew the handles
*Fold down the short side 1/4” (if you have a printed fabric, fold so that wrong sides touch).
*Then fold lengthwise so that right sides are together, wrong side out.
*Pin or just sew down the length of the strap, 1/4” seam.
*Once sewn, they are tube-like and will need to be turned inside out (using a safety pin or a turner…I don’t know what it’s really called, sorry!).
*Iron flat, with the seam in the middle.
Step 3 – Pin it all together
*Stack the lining down and the outer shell, right sides together.
*Put the handles (just sewn above) in between the layers, seam facing the lining, with the loop of the handle on the inside.
--->I put the ends of the handles 2.5” from the ends.
*Pin it all around!
Step 4 – Sew it
*Sew all around the rectangle, leaving an opening on one of the long sides. 1/4” inseam.
--->I reinforced the handles with a backstitch and a zigzag stich. Maybe a little overkill, but my son has mastered the still of destroying things!!
Step 5 – Turn it inside out, iron if you must
*Turn the bag right side out, through the opening you didn’t sew. Make sure to get the corners really good. It will look like this—>
Step 6 – Turn it into a real bag
*Fold bag so the right sides are together and sew up both sides, it will also close your opening that you left. 1/4” inseam.
*To make the bag flat on the bottom, sew the corners as shown. Lay the bag so that it forms a triangle and sew straight across.
--->The length of the sewn part is how wide the bottom of the bag will be (mine is about 1 1/2”, which is about 1” from the point).
Done. How long did that take you? If you want to make it even faster, then do what my sister does and buy the handle type material instead of sewing it yourself. I decided to make this at 10 pm, Saturday night, so going to a store to buy the handles wasn’t really an option as I just wanted to get it done and not make it take longer than needed.
{what I used}
*Olive green fabric
*Mossy Oak Camouflage fabric
*Black fabric
