Saturday, December 11, 2010

more christmas crafting

Dieter and Rainer and I had a wonderful morning on Saturday doing a little Christmas crafting. I honestly wasn't sure if the boys would want to do this, but I was wonderfully surprised by how well they got into the spirit of making and giving and how Dieter especially saw the project through to completion.

This is the "stuffed art" from Soulemama's first book. I initially had my heart set on the boys making small-ish ornament sized pieces onto which I was planning to sew a ribbon loop (like this). But neither boy liked that idea. Both had in mind working with larger pieces of fabric and simply making them into pillows. It was a major "letting go" for me (because I thought ornaments would be so nice to give and receive), but I'm glad I did let go because the boys had such a wonderful time following their creative visions. I do feel like validating them in that way is so powerful--for them to see that their ideas are good and successful.
And look at the basket of sweetness they turned out! Both boys enjoyed marking on the fabric with fabric marker. I was worried it might be hard but I bought heavy duck canvas and taped it down along all 4 edges. Then Dieter helped further by stuffing all these whilst I machine sewed. Near the end we had the idea to also throw in a handful of dried lavender along with the poly-fil.
Both boys also were involved in choosing the fabrics for the backing--a very fun task indeed.
I love their work! There is something so gratifying in letting these appear to be totally child-made. (Which they are, except the machine stitching, of course. I had intended to hand sew these, but that immediately proved to be too time consuming and the duck cloth is so thick that Dieter had a hard time pushing the needle through). In the style of the original project in the book, we just left the edges raw.
Each boy chose to keep one of their creations. Rainer took a nap with his little pillow.

After all was said and done, Dieter said, "Mama, let's try to make at least one thing every day. At least one." I couldn't agree more!

8 comments:

Sarah said...

love it! What a great comment too from your son, lets you know that he truly enjoys what he's doing. Can't wait to see more :)

Andrea said...

Very cool. That letting go of your own vision stuff is tricky isn't it? I have to work on that every time I have a "plan" for a project with kids. We're making something similar, but stuffing the small pillows with balsam needles. I found that ironing a piece of freezer paper to the back of the fabric works really well to keep the fabric from wiggling around under the marker (and then you don't have the issue of the tape pulling out threads along the edges).

8760 said...

How lovely, they did such a great job!! Dieter certainly has the right idea about wanting to make something every day, what a sweetie.

tjoyy said...

sweet - what beautiful making & family time

Anonymous said...

what a lovely thought! one thing every day. great project!

erin said...

oh! You've inspired me again. I have the book but wasn't inspired until I saw your boys' pillows. Today we are snowed in with temperatures too cold to play outside. I have everything I need on hand so this will be a great project for today. Tell your boys thanks for the inspiration!!

Heather said...

Oh my, that is a an incredible collection of beautiful stuffed art. What a way to spend the day.

Carrie said...

Totally hoping for some stuffed art!