Craft with Children

I had a wonderful weekend with the unexpected arrival of my brother and his family.  The children always like to come and play in my craft studio and be creative.
The first question asked was " Is the Craft Shop open? "  What this relates to is, are we able to make something?
Saturday morning the craft shop opened at 10:00 am and Thomas (6) was the first arrival.  He wanted to make an owl (see previous post here) and a bag.

He chose his fabric, pinned and cut out ... a study in concentration with the "big" scissors

All the children were able to operate the foot pedal of the sewing machine, while I steered.  It gave them an opportunity to control the speed, and use the machine without being in any danger.

Thomas sewed around his owl, turned right side out, stitched the running stitch for closure, after spooning in the pellets.  I controlled the hot glue gun for the eyes... and a cute little owl was made

Next the fabric was chosen for the bag, great Australian print, and we sewed again... drawstring was added, and he had a great little bag for all his treasures.

His hour was up, so the next to visit was Matilda (4) - she wanted to made a dog, cat and a owl ... wow, in 1 hour?  We compromised to begin with to make a cat, I can draw that ... she wanted pink ... fabric selected, sewing done, whiskers chosen... how cute is this cat?

We also had time to made a gingerbread man, with a stitched heart.  I put the needle in the fabric and she pulled it through.  All colour selections were made by her and she also did most of the stuffing. 

Next came Olivia (9), I had to have a coffee break, so I tempted her with a hot chocolate before we begun.

She had brought up a large pine cone, that she thought would make a owl, how right she was.  She went foraging in my craft supplies, found some small polystyrene balls for the eyes, used a black marker to colour in the pupil.  Cut out felt for the beak and tongue (cheeky).  It needed to be put on a stand.  One of my rusty bed springs was ideal, wound with some greenery, then glued onto a mdf board with was covered with fabric.  It is so cute, I am not sure if the photos do it justice, but it is wonderful.  The only assistance I had with this owl was to hot glue it onto the board, the rest was all created by Olivia.

She wanted to continue with the bird theme, so the crafts supplies were raided again, and this bright bird was the result, she even had to add some food 

I love working with the children as much as they love playing, the colour combinations and ideas that they have are so unique, so it was not just my nieces and nephew that had a great time, I did too...

Until next time

Judy