Felt is our Friend
Posted on 10 February 2008 by Lisa Wippert
I am not Martha Stewart, nor do I want to be regardless of how much money she is racking in. However, I do find that being crafty or attempting to be crafty can improve one’s mommyhood. There are many items that should be stocked in a mommy’s arsenal of crafty-fun things. Beyond the colored paper, crayons (washable of course), water color paints, beads, boxes and yarn; there should be felt. It is a fairly inexpensive fabric and there is a rainbow of colors to obtain.
Imagine all the neat little things that you can make with the assistance of your little one. How much assistance you receive would probably depend upon the age group you are crafting with. For instance, as of late, pirates seem to be quite trendy. There is no age group requirement to cut out a small black eye patch, tie it up with some yarn, pair it with an empty cardboard roll from toilet paper or paper towel to be a “scope” and suddenly there is hours of “argh”some playtime searching for buried treasures.
Children love to imitate their parents; they adore owning the same kind of items we believe are quite common. For example, when I decided to move away from carrying a bulky diaper bag everywhere, I moved all my essentials to a slightly oversized purse. Little did I realize what kind of effect this had on my nearly three year old. She had to have a purse too. Well, needless to say, I pulled out the felt swatches; let her select the colors and beads for adornment. In less than thirty minutes, we crafted a simple bag using braided yarn as a shoulder strap, had some quality time, used our imaginations and satisfied a need.
There are many personalized gifts as well that even the least crafty person could probably handle. For those children that are nearing the stage of losing teeth, make a tooth pillow or small wall hanging for above their headboard. If you are making a pillow simply cut to size of about 5”x5”, sew on a pocket about 2”x2” with thread, then sew the pillow together with yarn, and don’t forget to use a little stuffing. The wall hanging could be made the same size, along with the little pocket, sew or glue on some ribbon to hang it and glue beads or sparkly gems to decorate it.
If you are feeling particularly handy, make a paper template of an animal such as a bunny or teddy bear. Using the template, cut two pieces of felt to make your stuffed animal, sew, stuff and decorate however you wish. This is a great little project that you can do with children or without. The stuffed animal is great to decorate birthday gifts, baby shower presents, and stocking stuffers for Christmas or even as Easter basket buddies. Adding a pocket on the belly could make a cute tooth pillow as mentioned earlier.
The ideas are limitless. Creativity comes to everyone, inspiration drives it.
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February 11th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Cute! My 7 year old would love the pirate stuff.
February 12th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Lisa:
Having more boys (3) than girls (1), I can’t say I have much experience with this sort of thing, but I can say I understand and appreciate the eagerness of our children to imitate our actions. I am a firm believer that anything we can do to keep our children by our side in efforts to spend quality time with them and teach them something new, something creative and something productive–is time well spent.
Thanks for the article…