WOW! We’ve successfully got the BYOBackpack out and guess what – there’s ALREADY a blog hack for your enjoyment! One of our wonderful testers even gave it a go for one of her bags!

With little ado, let’s jump on in!

Card Slots!

I love this hack for my kids to use for their library cards! We can use this to hold their library books and keep the card safe all in one place!

For this you’ll want a large scrap of fabric and some lightweight fusible interfacing.

The first piece you need is the card slots themselves. This measures 5 x 19”. Your interfacing will be the exact same size and fused to the back of your card slot fabric.


Once you’ve got that interfaced, you’ll lay it right side down and mark straight short lines from the short edge going left to right: 2.5”, 1.75”, 2.25”, 1.75”, 2.25”, 1.75” 2.25”, 1.75” and a bit extra I forgot to measure but keep it DO NOT CUT IT OFF!!!!! (ask me how I know!)

The next part SEEMS tricky but really isn’t, promise. Flip your piece over right side up with the 2.5” length edge closest to you. Fold that line back and press.

Then, fold the OPPOSITE direction at the 1.75” line. Keep going “accordion” style until you have something like this:

Once everything is pressed, topstitch along the folds on the upper edges – there should be 4.

Next, you’ll need a 5.5 x 5” scrap of fabric. I used some extra from the card slot fabric I had around. Lay it, right sides together, on top of the car slot accordion. Stitch around with a 3/8” seam leaving a 2.5” gap in the middle of the top edge.

Clip the corners and turn the whole thing right sides out. Press, then you’ll have something that looks like this:

Topstitch along the top edge to close the gap.

Lay this wherever you want it on your BYOBackpack – I chose to place it on my lining near the front of the bag, and pin in a couple places to hold it. Topstitch around the two longer edges and bottom short edge with a 1/4” seam allowance… and voila! You’ve done it! Go enjoy finishing and using your BYOBackpack!!!

Leave a Comment