Thursday 18 April 2013

Inspiring the next generation of crafters

I was partly inspired to write this post after seeing the following tweet this morning:


I've actually been really excited hearing on Twitter about all of the children that have been watching the Great British Sewing Bee and seeing pictures on their efforts.

The very lovely and helpful Maris has been blogging about the children she teaches to sew.

A local shop to me, Make & Do, runs after school and Saturday morning classes for kids and they are always full.  They also do drop in activities for any age of child.

My daughter (who is 4) absolutely loves anything arty - she's a bit young for full on knitting or sewing yet, but she constantly makes cards and jewellery ("Yes, I'll definitely wear the pasta bracelet to work darling"), drawing, stamping, printing on fabric.  She reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger - I had a toy sewing machine, did lace making, macrame (how 1970s!), quilling, making stockings out of felt, clothes for dools, peg dolls, as well as knitting from the age of 7.

I love the fact that kids are getting more involved in crafts!  Using their creativity can only be a good thing!

So I was excited to see a copy of RubyLoves magazine in a newsagent yesterday and snapped it up for N.

It's probably a bit old for my 4 year old but great value for any craft loving little girl (I know boys can craft but it is very girly!).  For £4.99 there are 6 things to make with most of the stuff needed included in the pack (other than paper, card, scissors and glue).  There was:
a canvas tote bag to decorate with fabric and buttons to make yoyos (N spent an hour with my button box and ribbons designing this!)
cookie lollipops (cutter and sticks included)
a felt kitten keyring (everything included)
cards to make (stamp and inkpad plus patterned paper to cut out of mag)
a ring with a clear stone to customise (all included apart from the nail polish it suggests you decorate the stone with)
wooden pegs to decorate (all included except card)

I found it in WH Smith or you can subscribe online here.

4 comments:

  1. So glad to see a review if this, will definitely buy it for my 5yo, thanks for the tip! And good to meet you on Sat x

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    1. lovely to meet you too jenni! hope your 5 year old loves it!

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  2. Think this mag us such a lovely idea, I have a 2yr old boy so won't be buying. What do you think of the explosion of adult craft magazines, I'm left somewhat bemused.

    Just found your blog, beautiful clothes. You are super clever. Got you in my bloglovin now so looking forward to seeing more creations

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    1. charlie and lola magazine is a pretty good one too - gives them something a bit different from just colouring pages. i can't believe how many craft mags there are. i'm not a such fan of lots of them - i have no time to be crocheting vegetables and suchlike, so i tend to buy the sewing ones mainly. i like cloth, threads (that's a US one) and Sew Magazine (which often has great freebies). I do buy Burda sometimes if there's a few things I like. But all in all, more crafts is good!

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