The Bag

One of my friends at church asked me today "Does he ever go anywhere without his bag?". She has made that comment a few times over the past year and a half. She finds is so interesting that this little boy is almost always wearing his little shoulder bag. Ian has always loved gadgets and he likes to have them close at hand and is often prepared for all kinds of things because of his stash of things he keeps in this bag.

When Ian turned 6 he wanted an Indiana Jones Birthday party. I wanted to hand out something that was Indiana Jones like but that was something the kids would be able to use for awhile. I didn't want to hand out stuff they would just throw away. So I made 16 of these little khaki colored bags. I lined them with different scraps that I had in my stash but the outsides of all the bags were the same tan colored canvas material. I didn't follow any pattern. I just used a piece of paper as my size guide and cut out as many bags as I could make with the fabric that I had. With 14 kids coming to the party and three of my own that expected to have bags too, I was sewing for quite some time.

At the party these bags were used to hold all the prizes they won during the games and of course all the candy that they grabbed after the pinata was smashed.

It seemed to be a big hit. The kids all liked their bags and every once in awhile I see one come to church or to the park with one of the kids that attended. That makes me very happy.


 Ian's bag goes on hikes with us. He will collect rocks and pine cones and sometimes even feathers but most often it is sticks that seems to find and keep in his bag.

This bag has been everywhere with this boy. It goes on every vacation. It went to Mexico on the cruise ship with him.

He wears it to the library for Summer reading activities.

He wears it at home while playing with toys.

It held the map while we explored the zoo.

I don't know exactly what he keeps inside it. He has been keeping the Harry Potter book he has been reading in it the last little while just so he can pull it out when in the car or out and about.  I also know there is a plastic soap dish inside that holds a bunch of different pieces of string. These strings come in handy when you want to make a bow and arrow while at the park. And an old Altoids can was in there. It holds a few legos.  I only know this because every once in awhile the bag has to go through the wash and I finally get to see what is inside.

Here it is again at Grandma's house while the boys had a sword fight while walking the fence.

I bought him an adventure vest last year. I thought all those pockets would come in handy. He wore that vest a lot. But I think he grew out of it pretty quickly. Good thing the bag doesn't seem to ever be to small. Sometimes he would leave his bag behind and just wear the vest.

 
 
But sometimes he had both the vest and the bag.

Oh... I guess the bag didn't make it to Yellowstone, but Sophie brought hers!

Henry wears his quite a bit when he can find it. He doesn't keep track of his bag quite as well as Ian does his.

 Even Molly gets into the act. But hers is just for dress up at the moment.

I original bag that I made him over a year ago started to look a little shabby and the corners were worn and a bit torn so we went to the fabric store and found a remnant of some even sturdier canvas and picked up a green strap for it and I made a new bag. Exactly like the old one but this time I added his Junior Ranger Patch that he earned when we visited Yellow stone. He had been asking to have it sewn on for some time but since his bag was falling apart I didn't want to put it on that bag. The new bag looks really good with the patch and the sturdier fabric.

It didn't hinder him playing the Kinex while we were in Hawaii. He was jumping around with it

It even went to church with us in Hawaii.

This boy is rarely without his bag. It certainly comes in useful!

Even if it wasn't useful it certainly looks good. It is the perfect little adventure bag for this boy.