For my 30th birthday, my friends and I went to Yosemite, CA to celebrate. I am so appreciative and happy that all of these amazing people took time out of their schedules to fly from different parts of the U.S. to celebrate my birthday with me.

I wanted to make all of my girls a return present to take home with them and since little back packs have come back in to style, I chose to make them canvas backpacks that they could use even after the trip.

Many years ago I bought about 10 yards of heavy linen fabric from Joann’s Fabric Store. I had other intentions for it but, when I thought of this idea, it was like a light bulb just turned on and I was able to put the two together.

The dimensions of the bags were as below:

In total I made 8 bags. For the lining of the bags I used unbleached muslin fabric. I washed and ironed both the muslin and the linen prior to starting the project.

The largest work space that I have in my tiny apartment is my bed, so apologies, but you are about to see many pictures of my bed. (Duvet cover and pillows are from ikea) Tiny apartment = tiny ironing board.

I laid down the linen, and lined out all of the pieces using blue tailors chalk.

Unfortunately…I don’t have as many pictures or videos of the sewing and completion process (I was on a tight timeline), but after I finished adding the hardware and straps and hand painting each friend’s comic character on, you can see the below pictures of the completed bags.