I decided to make my own backpack and pencil case for this upcoming school year. I lined the pencil case myself (please excuse my awful sewing skills) using fabric I have taken from the inside of an old jacket.

• Pattern Notes:

I cast on 58 stitches on size 5 needles and a worsted weight yarn, worked 8 rows in seed stitch, worked 48 rows in stockinette, and then another 8 rows in seed stitch. Then I bound off, folded it in half, and seamed the sides together using mattress stitch. I then used the lazy daisy embroidery technique (a good how-to can be found here) in different colors and shapes, lined it using leftover fabric (which nicely covers up the ugly yarn ends left by the flowers), added a zipper and voila! :)

8-11: I can’t wait to show you all the backpack!! It looks a bit like the Commuter Knapsack by Deborah Newton, only I didn’t have the pattern so I had to make it up and use stitch patterns from the Stitchionary 5 by Vogue Knitting. :)

You can see my Craftsy page for my pencil case here.

9-1-11: I just uploaded temporary pics of the backpack-- they are below my usual best, but they’re just placeholders. I’ll be putting up some better ones later :)

11-19-11: Just added pics of the pencil case I made for my mom’s friend Holly. The pics are a bit hazy, but oh well! :)