Sewing for Kindergarten

Guys, I am so excited about this post. For years I’ve been following and inspired by Mie from Sewing Like Mad’s Sewing for Kindergarten series and with a kindergartener myself this year, I get to take part!

Just look at that five year old, ready for Kindergarten. Now you’ve already heard about her outfit here, but I have another fun first day of Kindergarten sew I want to share with you…

I made her a backpack and of course I had to put a panda on it. I used the Cumberland Backpack from Sew Sweetness as the base pattern, but I didn’t have to make many changes.

The straps were edged with bias tape instead of stitching right sides together and then flipping inside out. I also quilted the back and straps to give it a little more of a professional look and add a little comfort.

This is the larger of the two size options, and there is plenty of room for a large sized folder and books in the main section.

Since I couldn’t find the right size purse zipper for the main opening, I had to add some length to the lower side sections and add a bit of extra zipper tab to make up the difference. There is still plenty of room when the main zipper is opened to fit everything through though.

The panda face was appliqued onto the front pocket flap and I added ears to where the zipper attaches to the front of the backpack. It’s hard to see the ears in some of the pics because of all the black, but they’re my favorite part.

I love the details of the front pocket, like this pocket for pens and pencils.

And this zippered mesh pocket.

We haven’t used the front flap pocket yet, but I can imagine if it was my backpack it’d be the perfect spot for my phone.

Mie asked us a few questions for the series and here are my answers:

M: Is this your first time sending a child to Kindergarten?
A: Yes!

M: Do you feel like crying or celebrating?
A: Celebrating! Hehe, it sounds weird to say it, but I wasn’t sad at all about Bean starting Kindergarten. We’ve had five years of being home together and she was SO ready to go to school full time. It’s exciting to hear about school every day and all of the things she’s experiencing. I’m also getting time to work on designs (current test starts this friday if you’re interesting in signing up to test!) and this blog which is making me so happy.

M: What type of school does your child attend?
A: Public.

M: Question to Bean: What has been the best and worst part of school so far?
B: The best part is recess (shocking, hehe) and the second best part is lunch (gasp). The worst part has been missing music for two weeks in a row! (they had a holiday and then professional day the second and third weeks of school)