Fabric (Weekly Unplugged Project)
This week’s Unplugged Project theme was fabric. I must admit to having had a hard time with this one, so I finally decided to quit worrying about it and leave it up to the kids. I asked them what they thought they could do with fabric and my oldest daughter immediately began talking about a picture of a tiger that would be filled in with scraps of fabric instead of being colored-in with markers. I thought this sounded like a fine idea, but then I made the mistake of mentioning the word “sewing.”
Both faces lit up. The fabric collage was forgotten and out came the sewing machine. They have both used it before and can manage, even my 5 year-old, with some assistance.
I found some pretty fabric pieces in a laundry room cupboard. I also hauled out a big tub of fabric remnants that has moved with me, unopened, from garage to garage for the last 8 years or so. At least I thought it was unopened. Upon removing the lid, this is what we found:
A mouse pantry! At least I guess it was a mouse, although I saw no droppings. Whatever it was had stocked up quite a larder full of sunflower seeds! How embarrassing. When you have rodents living comfortably in your fabric storage container, you really can’t claim to be very “crafty,”can you?
Once we got over the laugh about the mouse nest, we settled down to business with the laundry room fabric (I’ll wash the other, just in case).
My 7 year-old daughter decided to make a small pillow for herself. I remembered that I had some very nice potpourri stashed away in the linen closet and suggested that she put some of that in there too, to make it smell good. Unfortunately even Wordpress can’t create a scratch-and-sniff blog post yet, but it really does smell lovely!
This was the process:
After the success of the pillow the kids really went to town and began making little flags by cutting triangles and sewing a small open hem through which they pushed a drinking straw. This was all their own idea. They then thundered around the house holding “races” until dinner time (the flags were the “prizes”):
And here is the baby’s fabric project (simple, but fun for a 2 year-old…and all her idea!):
All in all, we had a surprisingly fun time! (And the kids were amused for HOURS!!!)
So what did you do with fabric? Or did I scare you all away by choosing such a potentially intimidating theme! I hope not. If you did do the project, please leave your name in Mr. Linky (if he decides to work this week). Please also be sure to leave a comment if you participated, that way if Mr. Linky fails and I have to remove him, we’ll still have a link to your project.
By the way, for those of you Unplugged Project “old-timers,” please check out this link, I gave you all a little something (at least any of you who collect blog awards). I think everyone missed it!
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Next week’s Unplugged Project will be:
Letters (Alphabet)
Hopefully it will be less intimidating than fabric, and it offers a wide variety of activity options.
Please feel free to join in and remember to have fun!
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Tags: Activity Ideas, arts and crafts, arts and crafts, cloth, fabric, sewing, sewing, textile/yarn/thread, Unplugged Project, Unplugged ProjectRelated posts
Posted: February 17th, 2008 under Activity Ideas, Unplugged Project, arts and crafts, sewing, textile/yarn/thread.
Tags: arts and crafts, cloth, fabric, sewing, Unplugged Project
Comments
Comment from Tamara
Time: February 17, 2008, 9:28 pm
Oops! We did not get a chance to participate this week. It was not however due to the theme but due to too many other things going on in our house. We are in the midst of a partial kitchen remodel and I barely managed to pull together valentines in time for the exchanges this week. We should be back in the groove next week for alphabet!
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Comment from Maria
Time: February 18, 2008, 1:40 am
Hi. It’s amazing how the sewing machine attracs children. I think yours will sew a lot of times more. It’s very funny all you did.
1kiss.
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Comment from warillever
Time: February 18, 2008, 6:26 am
Come on over to my place for a video of the Agents just being themselves, which just so happened to almost coincide with this week’s theme.
Your daughter’s pillow is very impressive. I have no idea how to use a sewing machine — I made the pillows that you will see in the video, but I did it by hand out of old t-shirts.
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Comment from Claire
Time: February 18, 2008, 7:36 am
We haven’t joined in this week as life has been so hectic with preparations for Hermione’s birthday later this week. I’m up to my elbows in cardboard bugs! Shame too as we love working with fabric. We have a book of good ‘no sew’ fabric crafts which we had hoped to use and do something really special but time has run out. There was talk of covering Hermione’s waste paper bin in fabric and lace.
I am very impressed with your children’s creations this week and their confidence and skill with the sewing machine. They have made some very beautiful things and should be proud of themselves!
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Comment from warillever
Time: February 18, 2008, 10:41 am
Clarification:
I made the floor pillows, *not* the pillow cases, from old t-shirts. I have absolutely no idea how to sew a straight line, so I make t-shirts by sewing up the bottom of the shirt and the sleeve edges.
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Comment from Mom and Kiddo
Time: February 18, 2008, 11:49 am
Looks like fun and so impressed that you could keep the kids occupied for hours! Just a little envious, too. My sewing machine rarely makes an appearance these days and stays tucked in the chest.
Kiddo loves, loves, loves letters so we should have fun with that.
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Comment from Kate in NJ
Time: February 18, 2008, 5:10 pm
LOL, we’re in…although not as creative as yours.
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Comment from Jenny
Time: February 18, 2008, 6:47 pm
I swear I must be the only person around who doesn’t own a sewing machine! I’m really impressed that both your son and daughter know how to use one. How cool that it kept them amused for hours too!
PS The baby’s blanket for the doll is adorable. :o)
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Comment from The Lazy Organizer
Time: February 18, 2008, 10:06 pm
It looks fun! I love the flags. My kids spent an entire day last week sewing bags with all kinds of little pockets on them. Now they think the machine belongs to them and they can use it whenever they want!
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Comment from Diane
Time: February 19, 2008, 8:09 am
Ahh, we had a busy weekend, so did not have time for this weeks’ project…yet!
The flags are super and the pillow is great!
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Pingback from Creative Mom Cafe » Blog Archive » Get Your Kids Sewing For Easter
Time: February 20, 2008, 11:01 am
[...] reading for all the fun ideas and easy crafts that are always going on. This week the kids made a pillow and small banner flags out of fabric. They turned out so cute and the kids were entertained for hours. Sounds great doesn’t [...]
Comment from Mom Unplugged
Time: February 20, 2008, 12:42 pm
No problem Claire, there is always space here!
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Comment from coastalgirl
Time: February 20, 2008, 4:37 pm
Hi there! Great pillow and I love the flags…great idea. We participated, but our fabric was actually felt! Does this count? I sewed two felt pieces together to make finger puppets, turned them inside out, and Leah decorated with felt pieces, feathers, and googly eyes, then we made a finger puppet stage…blogged here:
http://coastalgirl.typepad.com/coastalgirl/2008/02/our-experiment.html
Now I’m going to check out what everyone else did…always great ideas for inspiration from everyone.
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Comment from Heather
Time: February 24, 2008, 12:27 pm
I meant to participate for the first time this week but we had a lot going on and I forgot. I think fabric would have been lots of fun, I would have given the kids scraps and glue to do a collage. We have been working on letters so I’ll have to encourage the kids to try for next week.
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