First Sewing project

The last couple of days Ebi-kun has been driving me nuts wanting to do his own sewing project. Although he has done some bits of sewing before this is the first time the project was all done by him.

What you will need:

• 2 rectangles of felt
• 2 buttons
• a large needle, (I went with a sharp carpet needle and I am sure there are people cringing as I write this BUT like using a knife, I feel that he is less likely to having an accident using a super sharp needle since it glides through the fabric easily, a blunt needle would need more forcing and so making it easier to slip.
• embroidery ring
• a few safety pins
• stuffing
• embroidery floss

I didn't take a picture of this, but start with marking spots for the eyes and a mouth onto the first piece of felt. Put the felt in the embroidery ring. Then show the child how to sew on the buttons, I did the first couple of stitches, modelling how to do it.

I did all the starting and finishing, tying of knots etc., I wanted the project to be kept as simple as possible so that he would see it through to the end and so he could concentrate on the process of stitching.

Once the eyes are on, stitch the mouth. We used felt buttons but any type with holes will do.

Once the face is finished, place the two pieces of felt together and pin together with safety pins, as an adult I would use normal sewing pins but they stick in you so I reckoned safety pins would be a much better idea.

Sew around the edge, leaving a gap for stuffing. As you can see he went over the edge a couple of times instead of up and down, I think it adds to the character :o) Remove the safety pins.

Stuff with your favourite type of filling, polyfil in this case.

Then sew up the hole, I put a couple of safety pins again to keep the stuffing in and the felt flat to make it easier to sew.

And then you are done, show it off to all and sundry!

Although he wanted to do a much more complicated project involving arms, legs and hair I managed to convince him to keep it simple first time, explaining that he should learn the basics first before moving on to more advanced things (I should take my own advice on that one!) He did take a couple of breaks, raced Spotty around the kitchen several times and jumped off the sofa, you know the sort of thing but he did finish it in one morning without any nagging from me.