Crayon/Activity Bag

I found that as my boys grew from infants to toddlers to preschoolers that it was becoming increasingly harder to keep them occupied in places like Church, doctor's offices and restaurants.  It was not that they misbehaved at all of these places but with being active little boys they just seemed to have a hard time sitting still for longer periods of time.  I would try to remember to bring crayons and coloring books with me and I would just carry them in the diaper bag.  However, there were a lot of times that I did not need the diaper bag and I did not want to have to carry it around just for coloring books and crayons.  Well, one day when my Firefighter was home from the station, I took advantage of that time and I went to Joann Fabrics while he stayed home with the boys.

While I was at the fabric store I was looking through the pattern books and came across Simplicity pattern #2295 for a wonderful crayon/activity bag.

Fortunately, the Simplicity patterns were on sale that week and I was able to buy it for only a couple of dollars.  I bought the materials that I needed and headed home to start my project.  The materials list consisted of the following:

3/4 yd. of 45" fabric
1/2 yd. of 45" polyester batting
1 1/8 yd. of 1" wide webbing
one package of medium rick-rack
Thread to match

Fortunately, this is not a very expensive project, especially when you are able to use coupons to buy the fabric and the pattern is on sale.  Of course I had to buy everything in duplicate because I knew that both boys would want one.

I was able to cut out my pattern and fabric during the day.  The boys like to play by me while I am working on a sewing project.  They bring in their trucks and toys to play with but sometimes they ask for my scrap fabric so that they can pretend that they are sewing.  When I actually am able to start to sew G really likes to sit on the chair with me and push the reverse button on the sewing machine...when I tell him too.  Sometimes I just wait until they go to bed if it is a pattern that I really need to concentrate on.

I was very happy to find out as I was sewing that this was a very simple bag to make.  You start out by applying the batting to the front and back sections and then sewing the crayon pocket onto the front of the bag.  Then you stitch the bag front and back together at one side, add the rick-rack and then stitch up the other side and bottom of the bag.  The webbing for the handles are then basted onto the bag.  The bag front and back facing sections are stitched together (except for a small section for turning) and then attached to the outside of the bag.  Once all of the layers are stitched together you would just turn the bag right side out.  The bag facing will need to have the open edge slip-stitched and then the facing put back into the bag.  A top-stitch along the top edge of the bag finishes the project.

Looking back on this project, I wish that I would have taken a picture of each step to show you how it looked as I worked my way through this project.  I will make sure to do that for future projects.

 These are the bags when they are finished and filled with crayons and coloring books.

These are all of the items that I had in the bag in the previous picture.  As you can see, the bag really does hold a lot of items.  The bag was not stuffed so there was room for more items.  However, you just need to be careful so that the bag does not become to heavy for the child because then you end up carrying it...not that you do not end up carrying it anyhow sometimes!

This is a close-up picture of the crayon pocket on the front of the bag.

This is the inside of the bag.

This is a picture of the back of the bag.

In the end, we were all very happy with the way these bags turned out.  We use them every week for Church.  I keep the coloring books and crayons in the bag and hang them each on a plastic hook in the closet.  That way when we need the bags they are packed and ready to go.  Sometimes I will put a sealed snack bag in there, like Scooby Doo graham crackers, so we can just grab the bags and go.  It saves time if we are running late.  There is also room to fit a juice box or a sippy cup in the bag if you wanted to put that in there too.  Once again, just be careful of the weight of all of the items so that the child can comfortably carry  it.

The bags are also good in restaurants and doctor's offices.  It keeps the boys occupied when there is nothing in the waiting room to do but wait or while we are in a restaurant waiting for our food.  More often than not the bags do the trick and the boys are happy and content.  Sometimes I'll switch the coloring book or add stickers or something like that to change things up a bit.

Overall, this is a little bag that I would highly recommend.  It has worked out great for us!