Library bag issues...

Don't get me started on the ridiculousness of the issue, but Miss 6's school has decreed that all library bags must be purchased from the school, but may then be decorated at home. The bags are made from the same flimsy woven polypropylene that the generic "green bags"for grocery shopping are made from. As most people are now discovering, those green bags have a pretty finite lifespan before seams burst or holes are punched through them, so you can imagine that little kids dragging them around with their heavy library books in them doesn't do them a whole lot of good!

The school claims that they are supposedly waterproof (ha ha), and protect the books better than fabric bags. I could go on all day about how I could make one out of waterproof material that would last for years... but I won't. You'll just have to imagine me swearing to myself about it, LOL.

Anyway, I decided that this year I'd try and at least reinforce it with something to make it last longer! I was going to go and buy some sort of vinyl material, but I went looking through my cupboards first to see what I had already lying around. What I found was a stash of thick, clear plastic bags that I'd been storing. They are leftovers from various manchester purchases and gifts, like blankets and sheet sets. I kept them because it seemed such a waste to throw them out, even though I couldn't think of a use for them! I found one that was roughly the right size to cover the bottom of the library bag, I think it is left over from a throw rug I was given years ago.

Firstly, I cut out the fabric zipper and put it away! I'm getting a bit of a "stash" together now, LOL. I'm really loving it :-) Anyway, then I cut out one of the side panels. Then I turned the library bag inside out and unpicked part of the side seams, far enough to fit the folded plastic through:

And then re-sewed the seams on the machine and turned it the right way out again:

And zig-zagged the top seam on the machine:

Then it needed prettying up. Last year I glued various decoration on using craft glue - about the extent of my craft capabilities LOL - but they looked pretty sad and ripped only six months into the year, so I thought I could do something a bit more long-lasting this time. I found a bit of pink acrylic felt in the kids' craft box, leftover from some sort of activity, and cut out the letters of her name and glued them on temporarily:

Then I finished them off by zig-zagging around the edges on the sewing machine:

It might not be the prettiest library bag in the class, LOL, but hopefully it should last my daughter the whole year this time, and - fingers crossed - another couple of years to come. At least until I can convince the school board of the stupidity of their bags, anyway!