Fabric Water Bottle Carriers

I have been sewing my brains out during all of April and will try and catch up on blogging it all in May.

First up we have some fabric water bottle carriers.  These will be donated to my kid's school later this week to be raffled off as part of a PTO fundraiser.  They'll be in themed baskets.  One kid's theme is 'Summer Outdoor Fun' and the other kid's theme is 'Travel'.  I thought water bottle carriers fit both themes nicely and, to be totally honest, I wanted to practice and work out the measurements before making some for us to use around town this summer.

Since they will be for kids/families I took the opportunity to use up some of my bright novelty fabric.  I don't do much with brights so they've just been sitting there in my stash for a long time -orange polka dots, black racing flag, apples/birds, and turtles.  I'm happy to see the fabric put to use in a fun way.

Each carrier is made from a fat quarter or less of fabric, a rectangle of batting, and one yard of nylon web strapping.   The straps are my favorite (self-named) Strong Strap - 1'' nylon webbing covered in a tube of cotton to match the bag.  I slipped the straps in between the layers so everything is enclosed.  I made these with a 36'' nonadjustable strap that will fit kids, either over the shoulder or cross body if they're on the smaller end of elementary school.  The photo above is on a tall first grader.

The carrier is essentially a quilted tube with straps at the top and a circular bottom.  I used a french seam for the side seam so that there aren't any exposed edges visible from the top.  

The bottom of the bag is serged, as well as the circular base piece.  I stitched those two serged edges together and then serged that circular seam again so its nice and sturdy and all enclosed in serging.

For the raffle they'll hold disposable water bottles, but they are sized to hold adult sized Camelbaks. 

As I said, these four will be raffled off at our elementary school. 

I do plan to make more for us at home and for those I hope to experiment with hardware to make longer and adjustable straps as well as maybe adding a little key fob or pocket.

Ready for a hike anyone?  

I mean, a hike where the kids carry their OWN water bottles instead of Mom being the pack mule?  :)