Two Years Old!

Our first granddaughter turned two this month. They do a lot of walking as a family and she’s getting old enough to care about having some favorite things with her. She loved the little purse I made her so much I left our last visit determined to make her a little toddler-sized backpack.

Unfortunately I had a hard time finding a pattern that actually looked like a backpack. Most of the toddler sized patterns were basically a drawstring bag with shoulder straps. Finally I found a pattern at iThinkSew that I liked, it was on sale, and I grabbed it, not knowing when I’d use it.

I was at Joann’s a while back looking for fabric for one of the baby gifts I was making, and came across some adorable “Baby Shark” fabric and knew it was time to make a backpack; it was even on sale (actually, the licensed stuff is almost always on sale at Joann’s). And her birthday was coming up!

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I haven’t made a pattern from iThinkSew in a while, and I found it one of the more difficult to follow. I’m a pretty experienced bag maker so I was able to “fill in the blanks” but I fear a novice might not fare as well. That said, it did turn out cute.

I have to admit I made it more difficult by deciding to change stabilizers from those used in the pattern. The increased bulk made the sharp corners a bit tricky, but it’s nice and sturdy and isn’t at all floppy. One of the nice things about foam is the more you sew it the more it compresses, so I flattened some of the bulk by running an extra row of stitching inside the seam allowances.

Changes I made to the original:

• Stabilizers: I subbed foam stabilizer for fusible fleece on the main panels, and added foam to the band supporting the main zipper unit (the base of the pack), and the shoulder straps. I used fleece instead of plain woven interfacing in the front pocket and the fabric strips in the main zipper unit.
• The pattern called for 1¼” strapping and plastic hardware, which I couldn’t find locally. I used 1″ and it was fine, but if I did it again I’d taper the fabric straps to which the poly strapping attaches.
• The pattern called for a leather front pocket and handle. I didn’t have any leather that went well with the fabric and I thought it was a little excessive for a two year old, so I made fabric substitutes.
• The inside zipper pocket was extremely shallow. Even a small child needs a little more room to put stuff in, so I made it deeper. I probably added 2-3 inches.
• This wasn’t a substitute, so much as an enhancement of the instructions. My #5 zippers (which the pattern calls for) had a wider tape than the ones used by the pattern. It was obvious from the pictures. If I had sewn the zippers in with the method used in the pattern, the zipper unit would have been wider than the fabric band it attaches to. I hade to figure out the seam allowance on the zippers to make the final unit the same width as the fabric band. I think a pattern that depends heavily on that dimension should at least warn the user that it’s an issue, tell the user the width of the zipper used in the instructions, and give some guidance as to how to adjust.

All in all, I’m happy with the results but found the pattern a bit more work than I would expect for a purchased pattern. I’m also just not fond of fusible stabilizers; they never look that great to me. After use they begin to dimple no matter how careful I am to fuse them well. My local quilt shop owner told me she always first fuses Pellon SF-101 to the fabric, which fuses really well, then fuses the stabilizer to that. She says the stabilizer sticks better to the SF-101. I’ll have to try that some time; for now I’m still not a big fan of fusibles.

Materials Used

Fabric: Baby Shark licensed fabric from Joann Fabrics (exterior),

Stabilizers: SF-101 woven interfacing (zipper band on the small pouch), Pellon fusible fleece (small pouch, small gusset below small zipper, and large zipper bands), ByAnnie’s Soft and Stable foam (main panels, large gusset below the main zipper, shoulder straps, top handle)

Pattern: Tye Toddler Backpack by iThinkSew