Sunshine has been interested in learning to sew for quite a while. A few months ago, when I was buying curtain hanging supplies, she asked for a piece of felt. I wasn’t sure what we’d do with the felt, but the girls each picked out a colour and we brought it home. Then we browsed Pinterest for ideas, but Sunshine didn’t like any of the ideas until I suggested she sew a felt notebook case for herself.
She found the notebook she wanted to use, along with a pencil, eraser and pencil sharpener. I laid these on the table and put the felt around them to get an idea for the size. We cut the felt with enough room to wrap around the notebook and provide a flap on the front of the case to close it.
We used one of the spare pieces of felt to create a front pocket in the notebook case and saved the longer piece of felt from the side to add a handle to the case later. Here’s the case all ready to sew:
I threaded a needle for Sunshine and showed her how to whip stitch. First, I had her sew the two edges of the pocket to the front of the case. Then she straight stitched across the bottom of the pocket.
Once she’d finished sewing the front pocket on, we folded the notebook case and she whip stitched the side edges again, this time creating the main pocket. It meant she had to sew the side edges twice, but I thought that would be easier for her than trying to hold and stitch three layers of felt at the same time. She also straight stitched a pencil pocket into the right side of the case.
Once Sunshine had that finished, then she sewed two narrow pieces of felt together for the handle, and sewed them to the corners of her case. She also added a little pink heart to the front of the flap and a snap to close the notebook case.
And then she carried the notebook case everywhere with her for a few days. She was very proud of her creation. I also thought she did very well in creating nice, neat stitches (fine motor skills) and staying focused on it (persistence) even though it took quite a while for her to stitch everything.
Bonus: while the girls were sewing their felt projects, I was make a no-sew felt quiet book for my two-year-old!
Supplies needed:
- felt
- needle and thread
- snap or button
Cost: $5
Difficulty: advanced (suitable for ages 7+)
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