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Friday, June 10, 2011

2011: Craft Project--No Sew Pillows

The first official art journal project is slated for next Tuesday, but today was the first day of "summer break" for my kids. I knew we would be looking for something to keep us busy so I planned ahead. :-)

A friend of mine told me about Creative Girls Club, a website where you can sign up to have craft kits sent to you every 6 weeks or so. I figured this would be a good way to stock pile some crafts and I wouldn't have to come up with the ideas! Great for the long Minnesota winters around here. The first kit we received contained a no-sew fringe pillow. Well, I have two girls and you only get one of each type of kit. I thought this was a great project that both my girls could do. So I bought some fleece fabric so my younger daughter could make a pillow too.

Even though I knew the girls were very capable of cutting out the fabric themselves, I also know I have a little perfectionist in my oldest daughter. I wanted to head off any drama before it started, so I did the first part of the project myself in cutting out the pattern and fringe. SUPER EASY to do. You can do almost any shape you want as well. Just create a pattern out of paper.

The instructions then asked the girls to cut 32--5-inch pieces of yarn. This was great because they got to practice their measuring skills.

All you have to do after that is tie a yarn piece around each fringe of the pillow. Leave four open at the end to stuff the pillow. Then, finish tying off the fringe once the pillow is stuffed. (Notice in the photo below, I pinned the two fabric pieces together in several places so the pieces wouldn't slide or move while they were tying off the fringe.)

Here are the proud girls with their soft cuddle pillows :

Side note: Usually when you do a no-sew project, you tie the pieces of fringe together in a knot. You leave out the yarn pieces altogether. After the girls finished their pillow, I was worried they didn't get the yarn pieces tied tight enough and that they would slip off. So, I asked my younger daughter if she minded if I tried doing her pillow another way. I took the yarn pieces off and just knotted the fringe together. I think this technique worked much better and created a longer-lasting way to hold the pillow together. My older daughter chose to keep her pillow the way it was.
Here's what the pillow looks like with the fringe knotted:



Overall, this was a very fun project for all of us. Tying the yarn was great practice for learning to tie shoes. And the girls really seemed to enjoy this. We may try some other no-sew projects in the future. This is great for both boys and girls. You could just take them to the fabric store and let them pick out any fleece they want! You only need 16" of fabric. I have enough fabric left over to make two more pillows. If you did the prep work of cutting the shapes out, this would make for a fun craft at a birthday party (ages 6 and up). All the kids would have to do is tie the fringe together, stuff, and they would have their own pillow to take home as their party "goody".

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