DIY Handmade Stuffies: Valentine's Day Activity

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Handmade Stuffies:

This post is contributed by Richa Agarwal Diwedi. Mommy of two beautiful little girls, wife of the bestest hubby in the world, I am a dreamer. I am sensitive and thoughtful, independent and caring, half-sane and sleep deprived. Creativity runs in my blood and my house is full of artworks and paintings that I have made over the years. By education, I am an Apparel Merchandiser and professionally I sell Food Equipment and Services in the USA.

One evening I think to myself, Valentine’s Day is approaching and I am going to receive a note from Aanya’s school, to send 20 little gifts to share it with friends. And my instant reaction that time would be to just go to a shop and buy some inexpensive stuff or candies and send over. Easy, Right? But No, I won’t do that. As a child, I always made stuff and gave it to my friends and family and I would rather teach Aanya the same. Buying is always a convenient option, especially when you don’t have time and energy to make things. At present, I have neither, but what I still have is time until, Valentine’s Day.

Yesterday, my little one was playing with a stuffed toy that Aanya had made for her a few months ago and Boom! That’s it! I got an idea. Why not make stuffies for school friends. It’s simple, it’s easy and most importantly, it will be HANDMADE. Aanya loved the idea, “Can we really do that?” She asked. Although making 20 freaked her out a little, we decided to make it anyways. If we fail, we will always have our last resort-Buying gift.

So Today I went to Joann’s and bought the following items…

Low-cost off-white Muslin cloth

Polyester Filling

Black Sharpie and

Few satin ribbons (to decorate)

http://maaofallblogs.com/2017/12/diy-decoupage-happiness-jar.html/

Later this afternoon, I spread muslin on the table and asked Aanya to draw anything simple with a sharpie, simpler than a drawing on a paper, to make sewing easier and sturdier. And then colour it with crayons.

Once she did that, I ironed the drawing with a plain paper on top, so that the wax of crayons melt away and sticks onto the paper. And then with the fabric doubled over, I stitched around the outline leaving a gap at the bottom to stuff it. Ideally, I would have asked Aanya to sew it by hand (she recently learned to do whip stitch btw) but I decided to help her since we need to make a lot.

We stuffed it, completed the stitching with the machine and then cut out the drawing around the stitching.

Aanya was SO excited, enthralled, immediately sitting down to draw more. “Can we make these for my other friends? My teachers? I want to make one for you, for Esha, for Papa”. She now wanted to make one for everyone she knew and had interesting ideas to decorate all her stuffies.

So far, we have made 8 and we still need to make much more in the next few days!!

Making things with your children require time and patience and it always doesn’t come out the way you envisioned, but the joy and happiness you find doing it is something that you should look out for. So, while we continue our Stuffie project, You make something fun, and easy, and get the kids CREATING!