Teacher thankyou present

[Stitchthis]

Anyone contemplating? I made these flowers at Christmas but am struggling for inspiration. Any past successes you'd recommend?

They look nice. DS and I are planning on making monster fridge magnets for his teachers. They made key rings on Art Attack this morning using air drying clay and acrylic paints, I'm sure it must be easy enough to get the little magnets too to stick to the back.

That's a good idea...I normally think about sewing projects and forget about the rest.

I keep meaning to put stuff on a blog I set up, but so far not got around to it if I get my finger out I will post a link, but for now will try & explain...

Personalised Moth repellant wardrobe pillow

Have your DCs paint an A4 sized picture, somewhere maybe have them add thank you & sign with their name.

Scan (or photo & upload) this into your computer - tweak it around a bit if needed - if you don't have software use a free online photo editor such as Lunapics

reduce the size so that its about 6 x 4 inches - ish

Print off onto fabric transfer paper - remember to "flip horizontally" before printing so that all words are mirror image

iron your home made transfer onto a piece of white or pale cotton based cloth as per instructions on the transfer paper pack - neatly cut around picture - for a simple version use pinking shears

now cut out a pair of pieces of a woven cloth about 4cm bigger all round than the printed artwork - these will make a small pillow

sew the printed artwork onto the middle of one piece of the "pillow"

for a simple project, simple do a running stitch & use the zig zag pinking shear cut edge as part of the design

otherwise use a trim, such as ribbon or sequin, or leather strip or webbing tape if it's a more masculine look you want - sew these over the edge of the picture right across to each edge of the fabric - IYSWIM

With the picture & right side of cloth on the inside - sew all around the edge of the pillow leaving a small gap to turn it through - add a small hanging loop in ribbon, or similar at one corner as you go.

turn through so that picture & hanging loop are now on the right side

Stuff tightly with anything from poly beads, chopped up poly bags to wadding or cloth scraps - add a few moth balls & a few drops of both lavender & cedar wood aromatherapy oil to the stuffing. ?close hole

You now have a personalised moth repellant that will be both useful, can't have too many of & will remind Teacher or whoever of your DC :)

I might have a go with DS making a little pillow but (without wanting to sound tight) that's possibly more effort than I'd go to for his lovely teachers -maybe relatives for Christmas though.

And I'd probably have a go just with fabric paints rather than painting, scanning, printing, etc.

Nice idea, suspect my sewing skills might let me down bit though.

I doubt it (sewing skills) they really are very simple, just sound more complicated with long winded instructions & scanning & printing means you can reuse his artwork & make more than one, so can just print more off when it comes to Xmas present time :)

Going to be strawberry jam here if I get my act together.

Oh, I like the sound of fabric crayons, and strawberry jam!

How about making jam pot covers (just circles cut out with pinking shears) with the fabric crayoned material?

Oh-and dd did something at rainbows where they used ordinary crayons on cotton fabric and then they ironed the pictures with sandpaper underneath (I think-wasn't there!).

you can use ordinary crayons on grease proof paper - you know the sort of stuff you use in cooking -

flip the grease proof paper drawing over - face down onto white cotton cloth & iron the back - the crayon drawing transfers to the cloth & last pretty well when washed at lower temp - obviously you can only do pictures though - words would be back to front.

you can't do this with fabrics that don't have a high cotton content, it just doesn't work as the fibre won't absorb the colours so well

Bags. Some of the ones in www.flickr.com/photos/74047697@N00/sets/72157624086747464/ here were made for teachers, and generally well received.

I am completely stuck this year though as DS has a male form teacher and I can't really see him with a shoulder bag

sorry - proper link

I did see the art attack key ring.Now I have the idea to give my DS teacher.

I was thinking of making a sling type bag too - similar to stealth
They are quite easy to run up & I'm sure I can use my stash. I've made one for myself and it's great.

I'm going to make lemon and sugar handscrub, there are loads of recipes about for it, looks very easy, olive oil, sugar and lemon!

Have bought suitable jars from the pound shop, am yet to make the handscrub.

I think I'm going to either make a schoolhouse block cushion from an old cutter quilt top I just got, or a felted cushion based on a picture DS1 can do for me. I've just made a prototype based on DS1s favourite bunny and it only took one evening so I think i can manage it. Here's a picture. I'm now addicted to needle felting - very good stress reliever!!!