oCtOpAck COMPLETE

oCtOpAcK has completely exceeded my expectations. This is my crowning achievement to date. I'm reeling from it's exquisite curtness. It's so awesome!! OK I'll try and stop tooting my own horn now.

Here are more detailed pictures of the oCtOpAcK.
















I love that you CAN see the fruit lining fabric as you open it's zipper mouth. The button eyes aren't as large as I would like, but since they were free I'll have to wait and decide if I'm going the change them. The double zipper at the top opening was a lucky find at a bargain price. It just makes it feel more like a backpack. The explosion of pockets on the inside still tickle me. And the secret back pocket, well since I've told all of you I guess it's not so secret anymore, gives me a childish delight.

What next, you may ask. Well I have a kids version of this backpack in mind. I'm not sure if it's something I'm going to construct in the near future but it'll be just as whimsical as this one.

oCtOpAck The Pockets

Here are the bevy of pockets I've sewn for the Octopack. On the outside, I've attached a zipper for the mouth pocket and a zipper on the back for a hidden pocket. On the inside I have a total of 10 pockets. You read that correctly, 10 whole pockets on the inside. This backpack is pocketastic, if I do say so myself.





























All I have to do to finish up is to attach the straps, sew up the side seams, and mount the button eyes. Sounds simple enough.

oCtOpAck The Beginning

An octopus shaped backpack. The question is, "what would compel someone to sew one?" And to be honest I can't answer that. I can say that the Octopus Charm Tutorial by Oborochann started a conversation between myself and Grip N Flip on the cuteness of Octopi in general. Somewhere in that conversation came the desire to sew an Octopus-shaped backpack . But this conversation, like many others, was taken like a flight of fancy.

As time progressed the desire to sew an Octopack grew. As the Miyavi Concert drew near there were plans to have an Octopack, in addition to the concert outfit, constructed to wear to the concert. Sadly, as the concert drew near, I found myself short on time and decided that sewing the Octopack would have to take a back seat to the concert outfit.

Fortunately, Grip N Flips' birthday is coming up, therefore, creating a lovely reason to sew an Octopack.

Here is the pattern that I drafted. I wasn't sure how to shape the Octopack at first but decided the cuteness from the Octopus Charm came from their roundness so that's how I progressed with the drafting.

We are trying to figure out general placement of the zipper mouth and button eyes. We couldn't make a decision. There were just too many options.















This is the fabric we finally decided on for the lining. We wanted something fun and colorful that was visible when you unzipped it's mouth, while being affordable, since I was going to use a lot of it to sew a bevy of pockets. And what is more fitting than fruits!!
Anything food oriented would have been fine. I have to say I almost wanted to use this fabric with Japanese Women in traditional Kimonos but that would just have been a bit weird. Just imagining Japanese Women spewing out of an Octopus's' mouth would have been more frightening than whimsical, even in my book.