Mission: Accomplished

So tomorrow is the first day of school for Sarah, Emily, and Jared.

7th grade, 6th grade, and 3rd grade. Unbelievable.

Anyway, this is going to be short and sweet because well, I have a million things to do before I have to get the kids up at 5am. Yes, 5am. We have to leave here by about 6:50 to get them to their school on time, and then to turn around and come back here and get Alex and Daniel to their school by 8:00. It makes for a long day for all of us, but we're used to long days!

So Sarah needed wanted a new backpack. We looked at a few stores but couldn't really find anything that she liked that was a reasonable price. She found this cheap little nylon deal at a second-hand store for a quarter and she bought that, convinced that it would work - plus she just liked the style of it. I told her there was no way that it was going to hold up more than a week - once one heavy book was dropped into it, it was going to fall apart. But she insisted....

As we ran around that day, an idea started forming in my head. She's usually not "into" the whole handmade look, so I tentatively broached the subject with her - what if she and I sat down and figured out how to make one out of denim, with a lining, and with pockets? She liked the idea, so we I started working on it yesterday. OK, I consulted with her and she pitched in an idea or two....

We went out today and got stuff to make the straps, but as it turned out, it didn't work for a couple of reasons. I was at a loss as to what to do, because it has to be done by tomorrow morning. She was ok with not using it for a few days, but I really wanted her to have it for her first day of school - and then the idea hit me! I have strips of fabric leftover from an old project, and so I turned that into straps - she can use it like this for now until we have time to get out and find something that will be a little sturdier.

We kept some of the pockets on the old jeans that we used to give her some exterior storage space.

Flannel lining, and there are a couple of smaller pockets in there too. Ignore the toes please - I didn't notice them until after I uploaded the picture, and I don't feel like editing them out.
So there you have it....Sarah's new backpack, that cost us exactly nothing to make.

Gotta' love free.