Dinosaur Backpack for J's First Day of Junior Kindergarten

My baby started junior kindergarten last Friday.  I'm not entirely sure who was more nervous:  Joshie or me (or my husband)!   I had to remind myself that every year, there are kids who start j/k who have not been through daycare.  In fact, there were many uncomfortable faces in his class - some were kids but most were the parents.

After making so many backpacks for other people's kids, I wanted to make sure that I finished Joshie's backpack for his first day.

On  Monday, I was panicking because I was only at this phase.  Lots and lots of pieces!

Somehow, I managed to pull through and ended up finishing by Wednesday night.  He was happy to see his new backpack but ran off to play with his toys.  I suspect he thinks that all moms make backpacks for their kids. 

I ended up doing a double pocket like this garbage truck backpack that I made for Sarah's son.  Joshie chose the army green piping for the zipper, pocket trim, and piping.  I would have preferred beige for contrast but I left it up to him to decide.

I lined it with owl fabric (again his choice) and made a large inner pocket.  The pocket is great for hiding away his spare change of clothes (pants, shirt, socks, undies) and leaves the main compartment for his hat, snack cup and water bottle.

Here's another view but flipped inside out.  I bound the seams with some leftover grey bias tape.  I love the owl fabric because you have so many choices when it comes to the bias binding.

I wondered if I should write his name on his backpack but since I was pressed for time, I appliqued his initial onto the back of the pack.

On his first day, his teacher Mrs S showed him where to hang his backpack.  He was very proud that he was able to take it off the hook and back on again.  It's funny what kids will remember about their first day.  I asked him what the other kids had for snacks and he said one girl had a very tall container full of Ritz crackers.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day.  I hope little guy has a good time on Monday.  I hope I can stop worrying about it.

Readers who have been through this before, how did you cope with the first day of school?