LTTSA: Penguin Backpack Completed!

I finished the second project of the Little Things to Sew Along hosted by A Little Gray. The Sew Along is when we each do a monthly project and share our creations. The Little Things To Sew Sew-Along is using projects from the Little Things To Sew book. Check out the Oliver + S website too, to see all of the lovely things you could make. September’s project was the Penguin Backpack. You could choose a more traditional backpack or a Penguin version.

As soon as I saw the book and the backpack I knew I had to make the Penguin version. My daughter, Tesla, loves the cartoon Pingu and I just knew she’d love it. If you haven’t seen the cartoon, I’d highly recommend it. It’s available on Netflix to stream instantly. It’s about a Penguin named Pingu and his daily adventures. There’s no actual words used in the whole show and Pingu makes a honking noise to communicate. It’s a nicely paced show. After watching it Tesla started honking down to us when she’s ready to get up in the morning. She’s so cute.

Anyway, back to the backpack. It came together very nicely. The hardest part was tracing and cutting out the pattern and really that wasn’t so hard, just time consuming. I didn’t understand that the side panel was one long piece. I’m still not clear as to why there is a solid line down the middle of that pattern piece. I would love it if someone could enlighten me. I also hadn’t realized that there was a fabric layout in the back of the book, if I had noticed that I would have realized it was just one piece. I sent a desperate message to Jessica at A Little Gray asking if that side panel was one or two pieces before I found it. Luckily I had enough of both the lining and the outer fabric to cut two new pieces. Phew!

I also found Jessica’s tutorial on how to put the zipper on very helpful to read and follow. It really was very easy to do. I also did the double interfacing on the zipper panel to make it extra sturdy. I noticed that in a lot of pictures the backpack was a bit squishy so I also used fusible interfacing on all of the black canvas, which made it a little stiffer. I am glad I did because it only made it a little stiffer.

The fabric I used was a light weight black canvas, for the outer pieces. A Westminster pink dot for the tummy, a yellow Kona Cotton for the beak and feet and then a Back To School Ruler Fabric by Timeless Treasures that I picked up on clearance at Pacific Fabrics for the lining.

There are a few extras to the backpack. Notice that nose? Does it look a bit bulky? When I first saw it, I said “That nose just has to squeak!” So I added a squeaker. I think it adds an extra element of cuteness to it. The squeaker also helps with the whole Pingu connection I was going for with my daughter. She just likes to hold the nose and squeak it so I would say it’s a success. I tried to upload a video to the post but can’t seem to figure it out so you can follow the link below to the Youtube video of it, to get the full effect.

The other extra is a little zipper pull, since I used a small tooth zipper with a smaller zipper pull I added an extra pull so Tesla could easily find the black on black zipper. It’s just a few beads on an earring wire with a sterling silver penguin at the end and a clasp attaching it to the zipper.

I really enjoyed making this backpack. The directions were really clear and it came together so easily once I had time to do it. Next month we’ll be working on the Bias Trimmed Apron and the following month is a Puppet Theater. The Puppet Theater will be so fun to make and give to Tesla as a Christmas gift! She loves her new backpack.

Thanks so much for visiting Anne Made! I love your comments so please feel free to leave one!