Monday 4 January 2016

Library Bag Tutorials

Here in Australia, school children are on holidays for roughly five weeks. The break from school begins before Christmas and finishes towards the end of January. Before holidays began, most children would have received a back to school supplies list. For most kids, Kindergarten to Year 6, a library bag will be required to enable them to borrow books from the school library.

Make a library bag for your child to take to school. This is an easy first sewing project. DIY - Tutorial ~ Threading My Way


Even though school is over three weeks away, I can see from my stats that parents are already getting supplies ready. So, today I thought I'd provide links to my library bag tutorials - all in the one place.


The basic library bag is lined and has short straps, making it easy for a kindergarten child to carry without dragging it along the ground. The tutorial also shows how to easily attach a name tag to the bag. If you are new to sewing, this is a very easy project!


Adding a contrasting strip of material to the top allows you to mix and match smaller pieces of fabric.


If like me, you've been collecting selvedges, you can turn them into book spines. As you can see, some of the books are just strips of fabric. Adding the book spines is very effective and not at all hard to do.


Jazz up a plain bag by adding a Dresden plate, surrounded by stitching. I've done a combination of hand and machine stitching. Use your imagination and swap the Dresden plate for an appliqué.


I made the herringbone feature especially for the library bag, but if you have a spare quilt block lying around, it can be incorporated into a bag.


I just adore this fairy tale fabric - perfect for a library bag. I've made the handles longer and added velcro to the top of the bag.

Thanks to the lovely readers who have sent me photos of the bags they have made using these tutorials. Absolutely makes my day every single time!!!

Library Bags using Children's Art Works by Bella, from Nisabell Necessary. Brilliant idea to add children's drawings.


Library Bag with book titles by Kate, from A Fountain of Mirth. Kate was lucky enough to have Dr Suess fabric for her book titles.


Tractor Library Bag by Susie... Susie's first ever sewing project!




Library Bags by Linda...  with added appliqué and sewn for triplets

Tinkerbell Library Bag by Bec, from Belle Melbourne... sewn as a gift for a special occasion


I believe what we call library bags, people from some other countries call book bags, and they are often used to carry books to and from a public library. When I first posted about a library bag, several readers showed surprise that Australian children borrow books (to take home) from a school library, as apparently this is not the case in all countries. Do children where you live borrow books from a school library?

I access so much of my information online nowadays, but nothing will replace a book when it comes to reading for leisure - leafing through pages looking at photos of gardens, or losing myself in a novel, real paper is still the way to go for me. 

... Pam


If you think others would benefit from reading this post, feel free to share on social media.

10 comments:

  1. Ummmmmmm yes our kids borrow library books @ school - I can't imagine schools NOT offering that, wow! Great collection of book bags --- that hexy soccer ball ... wow! Linda that is the most awesome hexy project I've ever seen!

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  2. Yes they borrow books from school libraries. In the summertime when there is no school, our public library has reading programs for kids.

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    1. It's good to hear that paper books are not being given up for electronic books.

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  3. In Ontario, Canada the children can borrow from the school library but all books have to be returned before the holidays! We always took our children to the public library once a week for borrowing books! We called their bags "book bags" :)

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    1. Our kids always borrowed from the public library as well as the school library. Reminds me I must check out the sewing books in our local library, as I haven't been for a while.

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  4. Every single one of these library(they appear to be very similar to what we call "tote" bags here in the U.S.) is cute as can be! I love the idea of the book "spines" on some of them and I think the fairy tale print is probably my favorite one of the prints. I enjoyed the post so much, Pam!

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  5. These are lovely, great idea :)

    Thanks for sharing at Creative Mondays

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  6. So many gorgeous ones, I especially love the Dresden Plate and your spines, great idea to use the selvedges.

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  7. Pam, your fabric choice is beautiful. My kids still have their libary bags I made them. They're such a useful bag for a lot of things. Thanks so much for linking up to Thriving on Thursdays. It's always lovely to see you. Hope your new year has got off to good start. I'm featuring this post at tomorrow's party Pam. Thanks for coming.

    Anne xx

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  8. In India, school let borrow book but it's always a single book per week. So you see they don't need a seperate bag for that. I loved these designs especially the tractor one. I think boys would love them.

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