Bring on the challenge!
I remembered seeing this messenger bag from cargo pants on Noodlehead's blog. The idea became my inspiration. And I knew exactly which cargo pants to use! My husband had a pair that were, uh, slightly high water. Drove me crazy when he wore them. I'll take care of that! <insert evil laugh>
I grabbed them out of the drawer and started cutting. There was no pattern with this, just a rough idea of the size I wanted (folder/lunchbox/extrastuff size). I cut some more. I sewed some more. At one point I walked away. Wasn't sure where I was going. After an hour break, I came back to it and it made sense what I wanted to do.
Before bed Noah asked if it would be done for him to take to school. At that point I made no promises because I didn't know what to use for a strap. Can't let the little guy down so I stayed with it, scoured the closet and came up with a cloth belt that came with a pair of pants my husband bought. He's going to need to guard his clothes from me... I'm making other re-purposing plans!
In the end the cargo pants were reduced to a pile of scraps. (My husband announced that it looked like they had gone through a wood chipper!) And we we ended up with this:
I really need to take a better picture with the real camera. I haven't had a chance because once Noah got his hands on it, it's been in use!
There's a cargo pocket on the front flap. On the one side is part of the back pocket. On the other side is another pocket made out of the zipper ( sewed a little bag behind it). Felt all clever when I came up with that one!
On the inside I sewed a lining. On the back of the lining is the other cargo pocket. There's also two other pockets made from the back pockets (one is small because it was the leftovers from the pocket made on the outside side - perfect for pencils!).
Noah was quite excited when he came downstairs in the morning to find his messenger bag all done. He loaded it up with his lunch box, folders, and stuff and off he went! (And his friend that he walks to school with declared that she thought it was super cool!)
The only drawback to all the pockets? Takes longer to do the "pat-down" to confiscate items he tries to sneak to school (rocks, pokemon cards, toys, etc.!)
