Sewing a Mini Raspberry Rucksack with Kids + tips!

Back in December, my daughter and I picked out fabric to make matching backpacks. I made mine first (you can read about it here), and it was a little bit harder than I anticipated. I was worried it would be too hard for my daughter. When it was time to make her backpack, I found she was actually able to do quite a bit of the sewing, and I think she learned a lot in the process too. I thought I would share some of the things we learned together.

My daughter is learning to sew on my Baby Lock Brilliant sewing machine. It’s super user friendly, and allows for a lot of growth as she becomes more advanced with her sewing skills. We used the Raspberry Rucksack sewing pattern. My daughter made the “little” version. Fabric is from a little shop in Provo, Utah called Harmony. Hardware and zippers are from Wawak.

Help with hard parts! As we began the process of making my daughter’s backpack, I helped sew some of the tricker portions, like the zipper construction. But I had her sit right next to me and observe the process. Even though she couldn’t master every step, she still learned a lot by watching and talking it through together.

Let them read directions and try to figure out the next step with your assistance. I had my daughter read some of the steps and try to figure out what we needed to do next on her own before I stepped in. Learning to read pattern directions is a skill of it’s own!

Let them cut out pieces. I always have my daughter help cut out the pattern pieces while teaching good pinning and cutting techniques along the way. As they become more advanced you can talk about warp and weft, pattern markings, paying attention to how many to cut per pattern piece and where to cut, etc.

Let them mess up!! The best way to learn is to mess up. It’s okay if they make a mistake. Learning to use a seam ripper is a skill they will use through their entire sewing experience. It’s also so important for young sewists to learn how to recover from a mistake, and coming to know that mistakes are a normal occurrence in the sewing process.

Set them up for the next step or two and walk away. Let them feel a little independence with starting and stopping a seam all by themselves with you nearby but not hovering. I found it helpful to start the project off by setting up seams in the machine for my daughter, and as the project progressed letting her do it all by herself.

If they don’t seem interested, just keep sewing! I noticed that as the project looked more and more like a backpack, the more excited my daughter became. She grew more anxious to complete the backpack and continue sewing the next steps. Sometimes sewing can feel boring in the beginning steps of a project, but as it starts to come together it becomes more exciting. Keep this in mind if your young sewist isn’t as interested at first. Just keep it going and they will show more interest as they watch the magic of the project coming together!

Switch it up! I asked my daughter what some of her thoughts were about this project! She said she really enjoyed learning how to sew something entirely different than anything she has done before. Try sewing different types of projects to see what your child enjoys sewing the best. I find myself switching back and forth between different types of projects as well, it’s fun to learn new skills via different projects.

Let them help with the planning process! My daughter said she really enjoyed picking out the details and fabric colors. Part of the fun of sewing is the part that happens even before you have your fabric! It takes time to pick a pattern and search for just the right fabric to create the project. Learning how to project plan is a great skill! Understanding your body shape, correct type of fabric for the project, your personal style, etc translates into a well made garment/project.

Overall, my daughter and I had a really great time together making this backpack. We usually found time to work on it after all her younger siblings had gone to bed for the night. I had a hard time making the time to get it started but once we did we had a really great time making it. I hope this post is helpful to those of you who want to begin sewing with new sewists, or even if you are a new sewist yourself!