Antarctica

Year 5/6 class-  5 weeks 2016

This was a fantastic topic-so many rich and relevant learning experiences, and lots of ways to get creative as well. The students loved sewing these penguin softies and were so proud of them.  They also created pastel penguin art works and water colour penguin art works.  Highlights included creating kahoot quizzes about Antarctica, researching their own topics of interest related to Antarctica, learning all about survival stories of Shackleton and Mawson, and learning about the race to the South Pole. This was the first time I had taught 'Antarctica' and it is now one of my favourite topics!

 

 

Home Sweet Home Sewing and Stitching Group

I mentioned recently on FB that I am taking a sewing and stitching group at my daughters school for the next 5 weeks one afternoon a weel- they do an awesome 'Adventure Time' programme where teachers and parents choose some of their favourite activities or things they are experts at and students get to choose what group they would like to join- it's a bit like what I remember of 'Clubs' when I was at primary school- I remember knitting and cooking clubs- and they are still on offer which is great but there's also movie making, computer coding, mountain bike riding, contact sports, fishing, art history, dance and more... lucky kids! So I thought I'd share a few pics of what we got up to today in my group- I called it 'Home Sweet Home' as all of our projects are going to have a little house theme (one of my favourites!). 

I brought it some hand stitching examples I have in our home- I wrote a blog post about the stitched handprints here if it appeals to you...

http://domesticblissnz.blogspot.co.nz/2011/03/my-creative-space-handprint-embroidery.html

I blogged about the babushka art here

http://domesticblissnz.blogspot.co.nz/2011/01/my-creative-space-little-stitching.html

I did the washing line one and the lady in the flowers needlepoint pieces years ago, before I even got right into sewing and crafting. They are designed by Jennifer Pudney and are really easy to do as the drawings are on the fabric so its like colouring in with stitches!

http://www.jenniferpudney.com/assets/store/Needlepointpostcards.htm

My nana, Noelene stitched the beautiful alphabet sampler- she was an exceptionally good seamstress and stitcher so it's lovely to have some of her work in our home.

I brought a few books in for the girls to have a look at to get inspired and see all the cool things they can make once they get into crafting.

And my favourite thing was this booklet I put together for each of the girls. I used to have to put booklets together all the time for presentations and workshops when I was full time teaching so it was fun to use these skills again to put it together.

I googled some 'sewing fonts' and found a few cute ones to use on the cover- the font for the 'Home Sweet Home' title is this one called Fabrics 

http://www.fontspace.com/cloutierfontes/fabrics

 

I left the second page blank for them to practice some stitches on hessian and glue it into their booklet. On the opposite page I found some clip art diagrams of different stitches. Today I taught them running stitch and back stitch.

I made up a sewing themed word find on the next page- there are heaps of free word search generators around - I used this one

http://worksheets.theteacherscorner.net/make-your-own/word-search/

I found a clip art sewing machine diagram for the next page.

For the last 2 pages I wrote a list of the projects we are going to do- and then my favourite page is the last page- I stuck samples of different fabrics on the page and the girls have to find out the names of each one.

Today's project was to create a house picture using running stitch and back stitch using yarn and a tapestry needle. I gave them each a square of hessian (I sewed around each one to stop them fraying) and showed them my one I stitched last night.  I used the house from one of my favourite picture books for my stitched picture (highly recommend this lovely book which is 60 years old this year- my kids and every class I read it to love it.) 

http://www.bookdepository.com/Little-House-Virginia-Lee-Burton/9780395259382

It was really fun seeing them stitching away- lots of needles needing threading and a few fix ups but on the whole they got the hang of it pretty quickly - but they only got a little bit done of their pictures so hopefully they will bring them back next week so I can take a few pics. I sent them off with a little house cookie each. 

Next week we are making little felt house keyrings and bag charms.

Thanks for reading :) 

Megan

Scrap Bag Swap 2014 - A Pocket Organiser

Ever since seeing this gorgeous pocket organiser on Pinterest  (from the blog post http://nicety.livejournal.com/1217050.html which has lots more photo's of the stunning kids space the organiser is hanging in) I wanted to make my own one and late last year I finally did, making one for my friend's daughters 7 year old birthday. Some of the fabrics I used were from a fabric scrap bag swap I took part in 2 years ago organised by Nin  (I was very lucky to also get Nin as my swap partner who sent me a beautiful bag of scrap fabrics which have been well used) so it was fun to get them out again to make this.  If you have a bunch of scraps then this is the perfect project as you can have a lot of fun choosing different pieces for the pockets and you don't need a lot of fabric for each pocket. I didn't do any measuring for this project which really appeals to me so it was a reasonably quick project too - it probably took me 2 hours max.

For the white back and front pieces I cut out 2 large pieces of fabric (each one about 50cm x 80 cm approx). I used my favourite off white cotton duck that I get from Bernina, a lovely heavy linen looking fabric that I use for heaps of my projects.  Then the fun part-  I got out all my scraps and found a mix of pink pieces, then cut out different size rectangles and played around fitting them on the front piece of fabric. Once I had them sorted I folded over the tops and sides of each pocket and ironed them, and then stitched around them.

For some pockets I added a bit of embellishment like a piece of lace or ricrac.

You could also do things like hand stitch the initial of their name to a pocket, or appliqué their name across the top of the organiser.

I added a ribbon down one side to put hair clips on, and a little ribbon loop under one pocket to attach things like headbands, or a carabina with hair ties on it like this one I shared on my Facebook page a few weeks ago.

I also added a line of lace across the top of the pockets so things like cards and postcards could be attached with pegs.

Then I pinned the pockets on and sewed around the sides and bottom of each pocket to attach them to the front piece of fabric. Once that was done I placed my back piece over the front piece (right sides together), sewed around the whole thing leaving a gap at the bottom for turning, then turned it right sides out and top stitched around the organiser to finish it off. I added two ribbon loops to the top back of the organiser so it could be hung on the wall.

I found a small container and filled it with a few things for the pockets to give with the organiser- 7 year old girls are lots of fun to buy for :) 

I can't wait to make one of these for each of my kids - anything to facilitate any sort of tidying/storage will be a good thing in their bedrooms!

Don't forget to check out all the other blog posts for Nin's Scrap Bag Swap series- there's a link to them all here, and join in the swap next year if you are keen!

http://notchkas-wardrobe.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/a-blog-hop-quilt-along-and-competition.html

Megan