A New Convert to Sewing

Every time my niece and nephew are here, my nephew is constantly bopping in and out of the sewing room...messing with the iron, chopping up pieces of ribbon, organizing the buttons...and his answer is always "No, that's ok" when I ask him if he wants to make something. This weekend, though, I finally got him to sit down for a minute and I showed him how to make puppets out of fleece remnants. Using Butterick 4209, I showed him that in just a few minutes he could have a puppet to play with.


He was then VERY interested in sewing, requiring a trip to the fabric store for him to rat through the fleece remnants there, planning his next 5 puppets. His second attempt was a puppy. We made some small changes from the pattern, we use felt cut-outs for eyes and noses rather than goggle eyes and pom-poms (mainly because felt is what I had in the house), and we also sew as much by machine as possible rather than hand sewing puppy ears that could be yanked off by a rambunctious boy.

He isn't ready to sew by himself yet, so he sits on my lap and helps guide the fabric. Here he is working on his puppets:


Helping with the curves:


Stuffing for the head:


Waiting for the glue...it's SOOOO slow!


And here he is with his new buddies:


Overall, I think this is a great pattern that is super-easy to put together. It is a nice way for a little one like D. to get a taste of sewing, or a way for a child with more experience to work on a project for themselves. There is a good amount of hand-sewing involved, attaching the head, tail, collar, etc., and little ones definitely need assistance there. I think the greatest advantage of this pattern though is how quickly it comes together, and each step the kids can see exactly what they are making, where each piece goes, etc. It goes together so quickly, it keeps short attention spans focused and now he not only has some new toys, but will be proud to say "I made these!"