An owl backpack for Jules

A couple of weeks ago, Jules the class doll came over to spend the weekend with us. Our boy was very happy about that. I a bit less. I’m not that fond of class dolls, to be honest. They tend to bring some Sunday evening stress.

Sunday evenings are not my best time, to be honest. The trash needs to be put outside, the week needs to be prepared, stuff needs to be put ready, and there’s quite some laundry to get through. Add a class doll diary session to that list, with pictures, and I go a tiny bit crazy. You see, most of the time, it’s only at that point in time that I suddenly come to the conclusion that we are very low on printer ink, that for some reason my pictures are not syncing to the cloud, or that the photo paper has been curled up for quite some time and simply does not want to go in that printer (if I’m lucky enough to have some photo paper lying around). While I’m trying to solve these problems, I hear the minutes ticking by, laughing at me, pointing it out that I will be losing sleep over this, and that the alarm will sound loud and clear in the morning.

But anyway, it was our turn to drag Jules along. And our boy did like that. So when we went out to get some new shoes, Jules joined us. All dressed up, we left for the city centre.

When we parked our bikes, Jules was still wearing his backpack. When we arrived at the shoe store, he wasn’t anymore. An immediate search party could not save us, the backpack was gone. Did I mention that Jules’ cuddly toy was in that backpack? I could feel the Sunday evening stress coming up already, even though it was Saturday. How on earth was I going to explain this to the teacher? How was I going to compensate?

So I started sewing a new backpack. And because Jules is the class doll for the owl class, I decided to make an owl theme out of it.

The concept of the backpack is simple: a string bag.

Straps on the back.

And a flap with an owl head.

I added a kamsnaps button, but I fear that wasn’t a good idea. I don’t think the fabric will be strong enough to cope with toddler strenght. Fingers crossed.

And the cuddly toy? That was replaced by a little owl. I still had a few of those lying around.

Do you ever have the class doll over as a guest? If so, how do you deal with it?