Sewing for kindergarten

September 04, 2014

Today I am joining in with Mie from Sewing Like Mad's series, Sewing for kindergarten. Now, a bit on terminology...in Australia, or Victoria at least, kindergarten refers to 'pre-school' - the one to two years prior to school where children attend kindergarten for 3 - 15 hours per week, depending on their age. Children generally start school aged five. So 'kindergarten' in the US relates to the first year of school in Australia which is usually called 'prep' here, although this year they have started a new term for the first year of school (which I don't like) - 'foundation'.

Anyway, this year my eldest daugher Isabella started school! In Australia, the school year begins in the final week of January or first week of February - after the six week summer holidays. A logical time to start a school year I think! So Issie has been at school for seven months already...how the time has flown!

Now onto the sewing...In the vast majority of schools in Australia (both primary and secondary), children wear a school uniform. Isabella's school sports a very common gingham summer dress for girls and the colour scheme for the uniforms is green and white with a bit of bright yellow (for t-shirts). I actually began this school dress in February when I was like, "I can make Issie a nicer dress than that!" looking at the summer dresses available. Oops, I only finished this dress two days ago!! Thanks Mie for hosting this series to make me finish my unfinished project! The pattern is An from StraightGrain's tinny dress - the skirt is a big longer. I modified the sleeve cuffs to look more like the generic uniform. The perfect pattern for a school uniform! I found the gingham at my local fabric store.

My Mum is contributing to this post too!! She knitted Isabella's lovely school cardigan which has kept her warm all through winter. Thank you Mum!!

Each morning I drive the girls to school and Isabella and Juliette always insist on escorting Issie into the classroom and they love saying hello to all the big girls! Emily has become a celebrity at Issie's school with her vocal talents and cheeky personality! She loves joining in with the national anthem at assembly on a Monday morning, "golden soil" and "girt by sea" are the only words she knows. Aussie's will know what I mean!

Mie asked me to answer a few questions about Issie starting school and about my own first day of school...

Is this your first time sending a child to ~~Kindergarten~~/ school? Yes!

Do you feel like crying or celebrating? I didn't just feel like crying, I cried. I missed Issie for the first couple of weeks!!

And what about your child? Isabella cried too. She was a little unsettled for the first week. We moved a few weeks prior, and Isabella had only visited the school once the day before starting. Luckily she made some sweet friends right away and now she loves it!

What type of school (public, private, homeschool) does your child attend? Isabella attends the local state school. If is a four minute drive from home and has about 160 children.

What was your own first day of school like (if you remember ;-)? I do remember my first day of school, mostly because (as far as my memory tells me), I got a fly stuck up my nose. Yep, that's right!! I had to pick it out!! I was pretty nervous for a the first few weeks of school and I remember telling Mum I had a tummy ache. Luckily I had two big sisters and a big brother at the school already to look after me!!

Issie loves school now and she loves learning. She can read simple books and her writing is coming along. She has lots of lovely friends and her teachers are all great.

Thanks for having me Mie!! Head over to Mie's blog to see what everyone else is making their kids!!