Handmade by Edwina: Crafting with Emily

“That is so cool”. When my niece, Emily says this to me, I feel like I am being paid the highest compliment ever! Today is Emily’s eleventh birthday. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMILY!) Last week during half term Emily came to spend a day with me and it was her choice to do some crafting.

First of all she wanted to make a fabric collage. We found some paper and I pulled out my huge of scraps of fabric – ideal for making collages! I also found some glue – and I have a small file of images that I have printed on to linen or evolon and she chose this image of penguins.

I gave her my pinking shears and she set to work selecting her fabrics first and then cutting them up and arranging them on the sheet of paper. I asked her if she would like to use some blue lace (blue seem to be the colour theme) and then went digging for my bag of blue lace. She picked out one she liked and then all the glueing started.

Whilst she seemed quite content and happy to carry on with her project without any further help from Auntie, I cut out some fabric for some purses that I wanted to make.

This is the finished collage:

After that Emily said she wanted to do some drawing. “Ice cream” she said, she loves drawing ice cream. I found my huge box of coloured pencils which she was delighted with, and Emily continued with her second project.

This was her drawing of the ice cream:

After lunch we discussed what to do next. Emily liked the idea of making her own notebook which I had suggested we might do. I offered her a choice of size, A5, (too big) A7, (too small) and A6, just perfect! Choosing the fabric Emily would like on the front and back covers was the next thing to do, so I went and found my children’s fabrics, footballs (she’s a very go footballer) owls – lots of owls (I have two or three different fabrics!) and Handbags, Monkeys and Cupcakes. What do you think Emily chose?

Cupcakes. Rather than turn this into a tutorial on how to make a notebook let’s just say we worked together through each stage, my offering help where needed and showing her how to do things, like stitching the pages together. Emily was a bit worried about stitching, but when it came to it I think she really enjoyed it. The needle I use is not sharp but blunt, and I gave her a choice of hemp twine. (Emily chose purple!)

I had already printed on evolon the words “Emily’s Notebook”. This was really the only thing I had prepared for in advance in the hope Emily would like the idea. Using my sewing machine, I appliquéd the label to the front cover, whilst Emily was scoring paper. When the notebook was completed I told Emily the glue in the notebook had to be left to dry (at least over night). Emily seemed to understand the importance of this.

Here is the finished notebook: Aren’t you impressed?

Emily is a lovely child, bright, intelligent, and sensitive and she is great company. We had a lovely day crafting. I love making notebooks and journals – much more so than bags now. This is how my crafting journey has changed and developed. I still make the occasional bag.

Here are a couple of journals that I have in my Folksy shop at the moment.