Back To School

I believe I volunteered for this one and boy did I pay.  For the past 2 weeks I have had minimal sleep trying to have these items completed before August 22, 2016 - the first day of preschool.

My Great niece needed a backpack, blanket, and a pillow for preschool.  I wanted her to have something that was different and unique.  I did not want her to have the cookie cutter supplies when I knew I had the ability to make her something special.

I volunteered my services and her parents paid for the materials.

How I Did It

The pattern I used for the backpack "The Toddler Friendly Backpack" came from the book "A bag for all reasons" by Lisa Lam.  If you don't already have this book in your sewing room I highly recommend it.  I have sewn several items from this book and her detail and construction techniques are wonderful.

The one surprise for me was the backpack was a little smaller than I expected but other than that it went together fairly easy.  I was dreading covering the unfinished edges with the binding but that was super easy with her tip of sewing about 1/8" from the edge.

The pattern called for 1/2 yd 44" wide fabric for the bag and straps but I found that was not enough.  I probably needed another 1/4 yard.  I ended up having to piece the gusset because I did not have enough fabric.

The fabric was supposed to be the same color on both sides but my fabric was not like that.  My great niece knows what she likes and don't like so I took her shopping so she could pick out her own fabric and of course it was not the same color on both sides.

To compensate for this I underlined the pieces with the same fabric I used for my binding.  I make my own binding because I hate the cheap, stiff binding you find at the store and you can never get the match you need.

I forgot to underling the top part of the gusset and ran out of time so I could not fix it.  Below are pictures of the inside of the backpack.

Inside of backpack with exposed seams covered with binding

 The pictures below show the outside of the backpack.  I used a stiff collar type interfacing on the grab handle, straps, and handle loops. I uses Sulky 30wt Cotton Blendable thread for top stitching.  I added her initials to the front.

Backpack Front

Backpack Front Top with velcro closure

Backpack Side 

Backpack Other Side

Backpack Back

For the blanket and pillow I used a this project from one of my favorite project sites Sew4Home.  The embroidery designs "Split School Applique" are from Bunnycup Embroidery.

I made a decision a few weeks ago to start doing embroidery applique rather than plain embroidery because I have a lot of scraps of good quality quilt fabric that I want to use rather than trash.  This was a mistake on this project because it took way too long to do the embroidery in the time I had - lesson learned (I hope).

The bag to hold the blanket and pillow was quick to put together.  Again Sulky 30wt Cotton Blendable thread was used for all top stitching.

Empty Bag Back

Empty Bag Front

Filled Bag Front

Filled Bag Front

I love the shape of this pillow.  I spent more time stuffing it with fiberfil than I did sewing the pillow.  I forgot to take a picture of the back.  It is an "ice blue" fleece.

Pillow Front

The blanket - oh the blanket.  It took forever to complete the embroidery for this blanket.  If I remember correctly the owl embroidery alone took about 1 1/2 hours to complete.

The instructions called for a single piece of double sided fleece but I chose to use a single sided fleece and a cotton top and cotton for the binding.  The hardest part was controlling the fleece from stretching as I sewed but my walking foot did it's job with perfection.

Some of the individual squares before they were cut to size..

Since the fabric unraveled just by touching it I wanted to ensure with the repeated washings that it would hold up.  I had already pieced it together before I realized I should have used the serger to piece it.

Normally I stitch in the ditch once the quilt has been layered with batting and back layer but I was using fleece for the back and I did not want to take the chance of the fleece "over stretching" by doing this and I wanted to maintain the softness of the fleece.

What I chose to do was stitch in the ditch on top layer only (cotton) and when I layered it with the fleece I used a tacking stitch at each corner to tack it down to the fleece.  Before I added the binding I serged around the edges.  The blanket is laying on top of a  blue and white stripe is a sheet on the floor so I could take a picture.

Back of Blanket (fleece)

Front of Blanket (cotton) laying on top of a sheet on the floor

Conclusion

I really liked how everything turned out.  The blanket took a ridiculous amout of time but after seeing it finished it was well worth it.  My great niece love it all.

I now have to make a new backpack.  The school says a regular size backpack is needed - my how things have changed.

I will make her another in a couple of weeks.