The Story Behind the Read to Me! Bag
photo of the dear to me bags

Even though it is a cloudy day outside, Sandy Smyth’s workshop is a sea of sunny yellow. That is because meters of the yellow fabric that eventually become the Read to Me! bag cover every surface in the room.

Sandy and her husband, Dave Smyth own Admiralty Canvas & Craft Company, a Dartmouth company that creates quality custom canvas products. In business since 1990, Sandy and Dave can often be seen at the Farmers’ Market or regional
craft fairs selling their own custom designs and creations which include colourful aprons, tote bags, children’s art smocks and toys. They are also the creators of the bright yellow Read to Me! bags. The bags are made by just two people – Sandy and employee Andrya McDonald. This is an amazing fact when you consider that over 36,000 bags have been made by these two industrious women. But the story of the Read to Me! bag doesn’t end here.

Many hands create each Read to Me! bag

Sandy Smyth cuts layers of canvas with an industrial straight knife Sandy Smyth cuts layers of canvas
with an industrial straight knife

Few people know what an intensive process each bag goes through before it reaches a new baby. It starts when Sandy and Andrya unroll and cut 50 2x2 meter sheets off of a huge roll of yellow canvas. These sheets are stacked on top of one another on a large table. Sandy then uses a heavy duty industrial straight knife to cut the stack into 750 rectangular pieces.

Each one will eventually become a Read to Me! bag, but first they need to be screen-printed with the Read to Me! bear logo.

The screen printing takes place at Halifax’s Maritime Campus Store. In addition to offering one of the largest selections of swimwear in Atlantic Canada, Maritime Campus also does in-house custom screen-printing and embroidery. Here, each piece of yellow canvas is placed on a textile printing press.

At Maritime Campus, the canvas is placed on the textile printing press At Maritime Campus, the canvas is
placed on the textile printing press
Ink is squeezed through the blocked screen onto the canvas
Ink is squeezed through the
blocked screen onto the canvas

A blocked printing screen with the Read to Me! logo is then placed on top of the canvas. The screen is covered with royal blue ink (for an English bag) or bright red ink (for the French bag) which is then squeezed through the screen. The canvas is left with a perfect imprint of the bear logo. Each screened piece is then run through a conveyor dryer to get flash dried. Flash drying dries and cures the ink so it won’t wash or rub off.