Get Creative! Sew a Softie!

Have you ever sewn a felt Softie?  If not, you are missing out!!!  July is Sew A Softie month and I was so excited when Trixi from at @sewasoftie (read her blog here) asked if Jillian and Rosetta and I would like to participate in the month of celebration by designing a Softie and sharing our projects here on the blog!  

We all three came up with our own idea, drew up a pattern and we were off and running!  I love making felt Softie's with kids because there is no sewing machine involved, it helps them improve their hand sewing, it is a fast project with super fun results.  

I've said it so many times through the years of sewing with my grand-girls and with other children and I feel it is worth saying again:  let them make their own decisions!  They know what they want in design choices, color choices, and the elements that they want to add to their Softie.  As adults, it is so easy to think we need to put our spin on their project, or insert suggestions and ideas.  I've discovered that they will enjoy their project so much more if THEY are the ones making the decisions!  And usually they are right anyway!  

From the very first day that I discussed designing their own Softie, Rosetta (age 9) knew exactly what she wanted to make!  She said, "I want to make a happy sock"!  So a happy sock she made.  We didn't draw out a pattern for her sock, we just laid one her Grampie's big socks on pink felt and cut around it!  

One thing I did to make the hand stitching around the Softie easier for Rosetta was that I drew little dashed lines for her to follow.  I used a disappearing ink pen by Clover and it worked great.  It really helped Rosetta keep her stitches small and uniform and less frustrating for her in sewing.  

She added fun little buttons and contrasting felt for the heel and toe and it was a very fun project!  She uses it for her neck cushion!  

Jillian wanted to make a cactus girl for her Softie and as is so often the case in design, her project evolved into a darling cactus in a pretty flower pot!  I love how creative she got with it.  

Jillian is 12 and has made numerous Softies but this time she did it 100% on her own with zero help from me.  From the design to drawing her pattern,  cutting her felt, doing all her hand sewing, stuffing and closing up her Softie it was all her.  It is such a joy to watch her at work!  

I love her happy and cheerful cactus girl and am so proud of what a beautiful job she did on her own. I also love how she didn't want to use the glue gun on anything... she said, "No I like to sew everything on"!  

I love the little face of her darling cactus girl and the button flowers in her "hair"!  

Unlike my little grand-girls I had to think about my project for awhile.  Suddenly I decided I wanted to make a colorful owl!  I'm not very good at drawing, but I didn't let myself think about the sketching too long... I just quickly sketched out an owl and all the parts I would need and got to it! 

I will admit that there is something so relaxing about making a Softie.  Just to sit and hand sew all the little pieces of felt together.  I worked on mine along with Jillian and we just sat and sewed and talked about all kinds of things!

I love having simple projects to do with my grand-girls where they come visit for an afternoon and go home with a finished project... a Softie is the perfect thing every time!

I love my owl and now I want to make an owl family!  

This has been so much participating in SewASoftie month.  Be sure to check out Trixi's blog and also follow her on IG @sewasoftie and see all the amazing Softies that are being made this month and always!  So much inspiration!