First steps in sewing: Polystyrene plate

A while ago I attended a fabulous morning workshop by a lovely lady called Renee Lighton, who encouraged us to set our children up for success by creating teachable moments in the home, using things we already have laying around. She gave us some pretty nifty ideas for using polystyrene plates (recycled from frozen pizzas or,as in our case, from a delicious milk tart some friends brought over for desert a few weeks ago!) So, I kept it aside, knowing it would come in handy for something...

I've been *trying* to get ahead with some sewing projects lately - not an easy feat with the little ones. The best time is when ArrowBoy goes down for an afternoon nap, since Sweetpea is then mostly content to sit by me on the carpet and build a puzzle.But lately she's been wanting to get in on the action and sew up something of her own. Since fabric is a bit floppy and I couldn't lay my hands on an embroidery frame just in that moment, I thought of the polystyrene plate in our recyclables box. I punched in a few holes with a plastic drinking straw, threaded a plastic needle with wool, and...TA-DAA!!

Turns out Sweetpea is a natural - I showed her the 'ins-and-outs' (literally!) of straight stitch and she completed the rest of the circles all by herself. She was a little disappointed when she came to the last hole all too soon, so she un-threaded it and started over again. Over the past few weeks she's sewed these circles with various colours and textures of wool. Perfect for mastering the basic movements of hand sewing and embroidery!

Linking this to ABC and 123's Show and Tell