Leil discovered The Cute Book at Esther’s last week. We’re at that point in the summer where I’ll buy any book on any subject if there’s a possibility it will keep the girls occupied for more than 1/2 hour. What a lovely surprise this book turned out to be.
The patterns are very simple. The legs, arms and ears are generally flat cuts that get inserted at the edges of the head or body, perfect for small hands. I scanned in the pattern pieces from the book, re-sized to order and then printed them out. The instructions were easy to follow for a 9 and 12 year old. Caitlin created Serious Monkey from start to finish with no assistance. Leil did most of her own stitching on Squirrel, Mom jumped in to help get the arms inserted and to attach the tail.
They used wool felt and wool stuffing. Both wonderful materials that keep their shape and make sewing easy for children. Laurie did a wonderful post back in February on wool felt.
The book provides great ideas for using the patterns on clothes and tote bags. Leil is already working on putting Panda on a shirt.
Studio 259’s Kid’s Korner has some great free patterns and kits available for sale. The new Felt Flower Handbag is really cute. Michelle does wonderfully intricate art quilt bags and will be teaching my favorite on Joggles this Fall.
I have one more month of kids at home, be sure to share your own kids’ sewing resources in the comments!
update: OK, this type of stuff always gives me chills. Heidi wrote about The Cute Book today too. I mean, what are the odds of that. LOVE her Kidnapper.
I love this book! My five year old son is a huge fan of Japanese felt mascots, so I have a bunch of Japanese books and like to surprise him when he wakes up with new animals. His favorite from “The Cute Book” is the alien (although he has decided that the alien looks best without arms. Boys!
And where might one find wool stuffing? I was on the hunt a few months ago and it is quite an elusive item.
Funny/Weird! I just did “The Kidnapper” from The Cute Book and its on my site today. As for kid-friendly sewing, we’ve done quite a few projects from Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing. The totes have gone over especially well with my two.
How fun! I will have to get this for Katie. She would love to make all these cute animals and she’s got a pile of felt waiting. I need to play an order with http://www.magiccabin.com and I think I will order some wool stuffing this time.
Do the girls like to embroider?
You mean there’s a point in time when I won’t instantly buy something for occupying any amount of time? Awesome!
My son loves to sit on my lap and watch me use the sewing machine actually, but that sort of frightens me. So far all he’s allowed to do is push the fabric a good foot away. Glad to hear the comments above about the boys liking toys.. I may have to pick this up for future reference!
Carrie gave me a huge laugh! Funny how those memories sort of disappear as the years go on.
I buy my wool stuffing from Magic Cabin Dolls. It’s $9.95 per pound. I’m a small time user so I don’t need tons of it or I might be more price sensitive. I re-ordered about 7 months ago and I’m just now digging into my 2nd 1 pound bag.
When I lived in Santa Fe I would buy wool batting at Hobby Lobby when it was on sale for 50% off. Wool batting is generally more expensive because they’ve gone to all the trouble to make it into large rolls that can be put in a quilt but it’s worth a look if you have access to a store that sells it cheaply. You can just pick it off the ’sheet’ and fluff it a bit before stuffing it into something.
My fantasy is to have 5 sheep in my front yard that I shear once a year for their premium wool.
Squirrel and Monkey look brilliant. I got the book a week ago and instantly my 8 year old son wanted to make the lizard. He really enjoyed the stuffing but I had to do most of the stitching. I was going to post about it last night but it got too dark to take a decent photo – so it will pop up some time this week. Obviously great minds think a like?!
That book is, dare I say, so cute! I cannot wait until my little ones can sew something. We’re still working mostly with lacing cards.
The book looks so cute. I bet my 9 year old would love it.
Thanks for the links. I especially loved the Studio 259 one. I got the bag pattern this morning.
Oh, it was very kind of you to link over to my site. I recieved quite a few pleasent e-mails because of it.
Hi,
Check out Floresita’s blog – she did a whole series on the monkey’s from this book. Super cute!
http://www.unafloresita.blogspot.com
Thanks for the links! I wasn’t aware of those sites before. Your kids creations are wonderful!
I can’t wait to sew with my 2 little girls. How early is too early. My eldest daughter is almost 4 and right now she love to cut fabric with her own scissors*I think about the day that I walk in and my latest project is in shreds* She glues them to paper to make her own quilt!
What a wonderful book!!! My daughter would so love that!!! Oh, and we could use it for Girl Scouts. I’m going to have to get one. Thanks for sharing.
Cindy: Ha, that’s an interesting question. I’ve been offering the opportunity to sew since Caitlin was 6. Now She’s 12 and Leil is 9. I’m not sure either of them really want to sew like I did when I was that age, you couldn’t keep me away from the sewing machine.
They both are very good at hand sewing and embroidery. One reason The Cute Book was right on time for us. Caitlin also likes needlepoint. I found some child friendly kits from Jennifer Pudney which have since been discontinued but you can still find them in shops and online. The holes are bigger, modern designs and all wool thread.
I don’t think there is one age, they’ll either twig onto it or not. I don’t try to push it and just keep encouraging them when they show the interest. And crossing my fingers that they eventually tell me they want to make a skirt!
http://www.onehourcraft.com has a two part tutorial on teaching your kids how to use the machine. I wanted to work on that with my 8yo ds this summer but we were hardly home. He is very interested in learning to sew, both handsewing and machine sewing. He made a felt Yoda from a simple pattern on starwars.com He also had an idea for a St Pat’s Day teacher’s gift with a felt shamrock and the word “March” embroidered on top. My 5yo dd also made one for her teacher. She loved sewing the shamrock on, he was more interested in sewing “March” than in sewing the shamrock.