Special Gift

My 13 year old, Lucy, was going on her first band trip this past month.  And not just to Ottawa or something.  They were going, by plane, to Colorado!  She is in the Durham Jazz Band.  This is actually 3 bands (plus a "combo"), of students from mainly grade 7-12, for the Durham Region (east of Toronto).  Students must audition each year, and there are only about 15 spots in each band.  Lucy was encouraged to try out last year, but wasn't sure she was ready.  Then the kids came back from their trip to New York City, and Lucy had musician's regret, LOL.  She's never shown a particular fondness for jazz--she was in the school jazz band for the last few months of grade 6, and all of grade 7, but her music teacher is the conductor for the senior jazz band, and really, there's not much else for musicians her age.  So, jazz it is!

Since they were spending a lot of time on a bus, in change-able weather, I figured a nice day pack would be handy.  At first I thought I could do it as a surprise, but, well, this is Lucy.  She's not all that big on surprises.  I knew I needed her input if I wanted her to get any use out of it.  My idea was a black drawstring backpack, with a lighter coloured inside, and the DJB logo embroidered on the outside by my friend at Small World Embroidery (she did the "Rude Robot" hat, and luckily, since then, has moved to just behind the kids' school!).  She was happy for the chance to practice her scanning and digitizing.

Lucy picked out red satin for the inside.  What?!  Satin would not have been my choice.  I didn't want to do a zippered pocket in satin, so I did a hanging pocket, but she said it didn't work because it kept flipping out.  I probably could have used fusible interfacing to do the zipper.  Next time.

I also sewed a couple loops of elastic in one of the inside seams to slide the water bottle in, to keep it upright.  She said she never tried it.

The cord straps were rescued from a cheapie drawstring backpack that had been a give-away promotion and fell apart.

She received quite a few compliments on it, and it sounds like a number of kids would be interested in having one.  Getting the embroidery done is probably not as cheap as having it screen printed (or whatever is the current technology) but I felt it looked really custom, and supported someone local.  I think I might make one (with a different inside fabric!) for their upcoming dinner and dance fundraiser!