Thursday, November 19, 2009

Homemade toys



On the excellent programme 'Life Matters' on Radio National this morning they had a talk back segment where people phoned up and talked about their favourite childhood toys. Many people named toys that had been handmade for them by their parents. One woman in particular who had grown up during the Depression with several siblings had had toys whittled out of soap by her Dad! (hopefully this was after she was over the sucking everything phase that The Booba is in at the moment....). This spurred me on to finish a project I've been working on for The Booba for several weeks now. I've been driving The Beloved Husband nuts with all my sewing detritus spread everywhere, so I'm sure he'll be happy! In the lower piccie you'll see a play mat made from scraps from my fabric box - true to my pledge, no new fabric has been purchased for this project. Its backed with two old cot blankets I picked up for next to nothing at a charity shop and then sewed together (after being thoroughly washed, of course). Using scraps has made it hardwork, needing to construct a patchwork of sorts, but I like the effect. I guess that was the origin of patchwork in the first place, wasn't it? - constructing things from existing scraps (not buying specially bundled squares of fabric from haberdashery shops like people do these days). Larger patches have been made mostly from some of my clapped out old flannel pyjamas - by the way this kind of fabric is actually great for making bibs too (very absorbent). I've sewn in little loops so that I can attach The Booba's various little rattly objects for ferkling*. I'm hoping that maybe when he is too old for playmats and in a big boy bed this might double as a bedspread. In the upper piccie I've shown a couple of samples of the other toys I have made for The Booba. Please let it be known that I am in no way attempting to show off my creative prowess here - if you could take a closer look at these pieces you'd see just how slapdash my sewing is! I just want to share some ideas - I'd love to hear or see some other people's too.

* "ferkling" - to engage in that distinctive combination of fondling, very intensely examining and chewing an object that babies seem to spend most of their time doing.

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