when maya when moved to the big kid room at her daycare my sister and i decided it was time for her first backpack.

vic had very thoughtfully gotten me the little things to sew book by oliver + s a few months earlier and i was dying to try the penguin backpack pattern. but when we found this owls all around print from the nested owls collection we knew a penguin wasn't gonna happen.

we picked up this aqua scalloped fabric from the andover storybook lane collection for the belly 'feathers', and some coral canvas. combined with a fat quarter of yellow polka dots from my stash, the bottom of some ikea curtains that were too long, and black felt from an earlier botched project and we were ready to go.

to make it an owl i ditched the beak for small triangle nose, made two large eyes (the size of a pint glass to be exact as i was drinking a milk stout nitro from left hand brewing, don't ask me why i remember these things), and added two little ears.

for the underside of the wings i used the 'belly' feather fabric and added some edge stitching. i also added side pockets under the wings, they feel like they would be the perfect size for a juice box or crayons.

as is the case with all oliver + s patterns it came together just great, the inside was finished so perfectly! i stitched the lining around the zipper by hand because i was worried i might mess up if i did edge stitching because of the way the zipper was feeding into my machine.

the buckles were from pacific trimmings (recommended by liesl in the book). the magnetic snaps i bought for the inside pocket were pretty heavy duty. so i recommend interfacing the fabric they are going on. i would also say scotch guarding the inside of the backpack is a wise idea.