Reusable shopping bags into fun library book bags!

Last week we finally took the munchkins to the local library and signed them up for their very own library cards.  Who would have thought that such a simple thing could bring so much excitement.  You'd think we had given them a freebie pass to Disneyland!  They rushed into the kids area and began collecting books with me trailing behind.  Seeing as the library has no limit to the number of books they are allowed to check out, they were determined to get as many as their little hearts desired.  I had visions of armloads of books being dropped into puddles, misplaced or ruined books and library fees coming in the mail on a weekly basis.  I quickly realized limits must be enforced.  My first offer was 5 books each, but I'm pretty sure by the time the words left my mouth I was already holding more than 10 books.  I stuck to my guns with the 10 book each limit however.  Even then , 20 books is a lot to carry!  The library recycles grocery sacks to carry your treasures out the door, but seriously?-a flimsy plastic grocery sack?!  No, not a good long term solution. 

Of course, my thoughts began to wander and as we were later walking through the grocery store it settled...right on the rack of reusable grocery bags.  Perfect! Nice and big, square bottom, and the best part: less than $1 each!  (of course I have multitudes of these bags in various places in our home already-but these needed to match, and not have dried who knows what already spilled on/in them!)  I told the kids at the store what they would be used for and once again, they were very excited-new books and a new bag!! All in one day-best.day.ever!  Now these nondescript plain old bags would have worked just fine.  I could have just tied a colored ribbon to each one to identify which bag belonged to which munchkin.  But, no-that's not how this Momma rolls.  If I'm going to do something I may as well do it right...or at least do it crafty.  A few days passed and my thoughts on how to customize these bags 
culminated.  I wanted to make them easily identifiable and cute-of course!  And seeing as the kids' library cards were going to become just one more thing for me to try to keep track of and would most likely be misplaced or lost in the bottom of the diaper bag, I wanted a special pocket to keep them.  I sketched out a general idea for each of them:  A dino for the Cub, and a lady bug for the Bug.  I realized as I began that I would be covering both sides of the bag, not just one-way to make the task twice as long....oh well. 

So, over the past few years felt has become my craft medium of choice.  Its so versatile and colorful, and to be honest-cheap!  I dug out my various boxes of random felt pieces and began piecing my bag-patched together.  As I snipped and figured out the layout, the kids had a blast taking all the scraps and making little 'pictures' out of them, I had to be watchful or they would snag the pieces i was actually needing!  I decided that if I was making a bag to carry stories, maybe the bag should tall a story too!  For Bug's lady bug, the front has the little lady on a leaf, on the back, no bug, and a bite out of the leaf!  (not sure if lady bugs eat leaves or not, but whatever!)

  Cub's dino was the design I had come up with first actually.  The front has the volcano, and the dino, the back has no dino and smoke coming out of the volcano...hee hee, kind of cute I think!  I had to get the designs approved by the little first, and they had all kinds of suggestions-like a frog onn the dino's back and some birds, and more flowers, etc.  I get veto power though-so there! ha!

  Putting it all together went pretty quickly actually, felt is so easy to work with!  Once The main background was sewn I had to figure out how to make the dino and ladybug the card pockets.  The easiest way I found was to lay the actual card on the shape and sew around it.  I wanted it to be a tight fit, but still a fit!  It worked pretty well.  :-)  Probably the most difficult part of the entire project was sewing the patches onto the bags.  Trying to keep them straight and not lumpy proved to be a little interesting when the bulk of the bag was all scrunched up in the machine.
 
When all was said and done however, I have to say I am pretty happy with the results.  The cards fit well, the bags are easily identified and the kids love them!  Happy Day!

The fronts.  Bug's card is tucked away under the ladybug's wings, Cub's card is behind the dino's back! Yay!

The backs.  :-)

Happy kids with a bag full-o-books!  

  Now we have happy munchkins with custom book bags, and a happy Momma who won't have to worry about losing library cards!  And since they like their bags so much the books stay in them any time they aren't being read-woo hoo!!  I see many trips to the library in our future.