Preschool Backpack

After all the debating of home, private, or public school we finally enrolled our daughter at the local private school in K3. She will be going three half days a week. I was told she would have to take a backpack each day big enough to hold a folder (not rolled). They said the only time she is guaranteed to bring something home is Wednesday when she brings her folder home. A quick measurement showed that her Walmart backpack was to small. After a bit of debating and internet searching I starting finding toadstool backpacks. They were really cute. Apparently the pattern is in some book that cost almost $40. I was hoping to find a tutorial for something like it, but struck out. What I did learn was that it is to small for a folder. So after a bit of measuring, rounding corners, and debating straps I finally came up with this.
When I had it all Wonder Under(ed) on and blanket stitched down I was honestly impressed with how much it looked like the other backpacks I saw.


Size was an issue for me. Fine it fits a fold, but is that all I want it used for? I put a lot of work in it and wanted it to be a bit thicker then a folder. The backpacks I found online had the front and back pieces sewn together. I added a side/bottom strip to make it wide enough to hold a change of clothes (remember she's three and still has accidents), snack, cup or whatever else she might want to put in it. The line you see above the magnetic closure is the name strip. I'll never try it again (maybe I will), but I cut out teeny tiny letters and ironed them on. It was to small to sew around so I put no-fray over them and now I'm holding my breath they still look good by next year. **Don't mind the vet records. It was the only folder I could find. It would have helped if I found it before cutting the bag out; I played the guessing game on size.**

And here it is in action. The one thing I'm going to change is the strap length. They need about 5" taken off.

My daughter's turned out so well I actually made a second to sell on Etsy. I'm such a slacker though; I haven't put the lining in it yet. I guess the bonus to slacking off is easier access to the straps to shorten them the 5" like I'm going to do with my daughter's.