Wednesday, May 27, 2009

In the works

Mei's been interested in bags lately. Backpacks to be specific. She finds any of our grown up sized backpacks and drags it across the room all the way to where I'm at. With a puppy face she looks up and exclaims: " Ayza werd did" Which translates in our normal human language into" I want to wear it"
*Ayza- Arabic for I want*

So I place the straps on her wee little shoulders and she continues the journey( this time struggling even more as she carrys baba's huge bag on her shoulders) all the way to the front door ( our place is tiny btw, it just seems like a journey for her I assume. Talk about child labor), and says: "Yalla lets go to Geddo!"
*Yalla- Arabic for C'mon, and Geddo- Arabic for grandpa*

So tonight I decided to make her a back pack. Inspired by this ( Also a wonderful informative blog for parents). I made the bag part from my old maternity jeans, I also saved the elastic for another project.( I'm always short of elastic) Sweet, two birds with one stone!

Unlike the tutorial I want to add straps in the style of a backpack for my sweet little Mei. She deserves a backpack too... don't you agree? I added a flap for the top of the bag and I'm waiting to figure out how to add the strap in the backpack style... Hmph ( any ideas? or links you guys care to share?)

Anyhoo, not to leave you picture-less. God knows how long it'll take me to figure out the strap part. Here's what I have thus far... And in the works...






Yea, disregard the flashcards- I either clean up or make a cool re-purposed half done backpack. I choose the latter.

Peace!

***
Added part:

I was checking my blog this morning and realized the crookedness of the bag from the photos. So I went and checked the real life bag and guess what? it's also crooked! Oh well... more character, don't you think? Anyhoo Mei will hopefully soon have something to take for our Geddo visits!
Cheers.

6 comments:

Another Anna said...

How cool! I have an idea for easy backpack straps, but I don't know how to describe it. I wish I could quickly draw something on my screen and send it virtually.

Computer whizzes, listen up! We need Email 2.0: Sketchbook!

Robyn said...

For straps, either get some cotton webbing from the craft store or make staprs with the jeans fabric. Then rip out the stitches on the flap where you want the straps to go, pin the straps in between the body of the bag and that flap, sew closed, reinforcing the stitches over the straps. Now, rip out the stitches at the bottom of the bag where you want the straps to go at the bottom, and do the same thing as for the top. Make sure you cut the straps to have some give, otherwise the backpack will be too tight on Mei. Hope this makes sense. If not, just email me. Have fun! :0)

Muslim Hippie said...

Anna what an awesome Idea, you should totally sell this idea to one of those big computer companies and make a gazillion shananigans!

Robyn- Thanks a lot for the tip. what great explanation. Unfortunately I'm way too lazy to rip up what I already stitched up.

Alas the original tutorial straps will work for now. I'll make a new one with your directions in mind.

Thanks guys, you're the best!

Taliba said...

Mei is so funny! At least our little girls can understand each other perfectly :)

A classic from my little 2 yr old miss missy yesterday at the dinner table.

(out of the blue): "Mommy, I am Obama"

Mommy stares missy in the face.

Then,

"Mommy, you are Bush, I am Obama"

LOTS of laughter.

But,

I wonder what this says about my mothering style!!!

alison @ cluck and tweet said...

First of all, your commenter (commentators? people who leave comments?) are great! Helpful...funny...political. Secondly, just be prepared to have a bag lady in your midst. My 12-year-old collects bags like underwear and there's something in every one: dog food, dog treats, littlest pet shop doo-hickeys, things for the pool, rotting radishes (I'm not kidding). Just a head's up.

Lori said...

maternity jeans! perfect! :^)