Thursday 22 September 2011

Robotic stress reliever

Life can be pretty emotionally overwhelming at times. Those lemons that were so graciously discarded on your doorstep can't always be forced into a positive batch of lemonaide. Yelling (to the universe) will help set some pressure free, a good blubbery sob on a shoulder of trust, and a creative distraction will help shatter the metior of stress that is crashing towards the shaky ground afoot. 


I am rather partial to the cry and craft combo. Turn on a film about love or cute puppies, throw in some wool and scrap fabric and in mere hours you'll have yourself a child-friendly toy filled with the discarded weight off my hunched inward shoulders. Being of the overly sensitive sort, I tend to dabble in the crafty creations more often than not. 


The most recent stress reliever was constructed for a friend of mine at work who is due to birth her first in less than enough preparation time. I like doing these stuffed toys - they have no rules and use up scrap material that I have a habit of squireling away. Plus I think it's fun for kids to have some home-made toys - even if they don't play with them...they still exude the love that assisted in their build.




Double up a piece of material large enough to make a decent sized stuffed toy. Draw out whatever you feel like sewing up. Seriously, you can do anything, as long as you have the patience to hand stitch it all together. After you cut that out grab some smaller pieces to make patches - or in this case since I was making a robot, I cut scraps to make a face, control panel and a bum pocket. Sew on some buttons and since I am partial to wool, I like to use that to make the mouth and other bits that make it more recognizable. 






Once you've sewn on your patches and such, you can start stitching your edges together. You can do this by machine or hand...I'm a hand sew person when doing the toys. I like the slight imperfections that it gives. Get it almost totally sealed - then stuff it and close 'er up. Done. Now you should be relatively stress free and a child will be blessed with a rad hand created toy. 


  

2 comments:

  1. love love love! thank you so much x

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  2. So cute!
    I've been trying to knit away my stress. Maybe I'll sew up a friend instead.

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