Felt Minecraft

At the beginning of the week, Little Lady asked me if I could help her make a felt toy. These days I don't attempt to instigate creativity with the Little People, although every so often I will make a suggestion for drawing/colouring/hama beads etc if they are kicking around bored and restless. I tend to wait until they are keen enough to suggest something themselves and then I try hard to accommodate any requests that are forthcoming re creative activity. Even if deep down my immediate response is "Not-on-your-nelly" I try and suppress whatever negativity sits there within myself (oh the mess, this is so not the right time, lets wait till the weekend, I'm too busy, it's too complicated, it won't work, go find something else to do etc etc), and beam out a "Yes-lets-do-it!!" response. I was actually pretty delighted with the request to stitch a felt toy. We have felt. And I love stitching. I was happy to make time to help out. We went straight to the laptop and I started to search for pretty, cute toy patterns that we might attempt to make. I got a wee bit giddy at the sheer volume of cute little felt creations out there, oh the possibilities! So much fun!

But Little Lady had her own ideas, and to put it bluntly, she completely poo-pooed my own cutesome suggestions in favour of her own thing. She told me that she wanted more than anything to stitch a felt Enderman. Ohhhhhhhh-kaaaaaaaayyyyyy...............E-n-d-e-r-m-a-n. I spelt it out and googled it to see what she was on about and felt ridiculously disappointed. It is all black! And it really is more than a teensy bit weird!! For those of you who don't know what an Enderman is, it's a character from the popular Minecraft game. And for those of you who don't know what Minecraft is, you can find a reasonable explanation here. Needless to say, I live with three enthusiastic Little Minecrafters here at number 24.

So let me show you what an Enderman looks like.....go here to see. Although I was initially doubtful about this project, the very good thing about recreating Minecraft characters is that they are made up of squares/blocks, so the construction is reassuringly simple. We found what we were looking for here (just in case you ever have a burning need to make yourself an Enderman)

We had to go shopping for black felt as surprise-surprise my felt box contains only rainbow colours. But the Trip To Purchase Supplies became an excitement in itself, and the Little People loved going to the stack of felt squares, and then the huge rack of cotton threads to pick out what was needed,  it was joyful!

Once all the pattern pieces were cut, I taught Little Lady how to start off, and how to make neat little whip stitches. She is a fast learner and took to it straight away.

For the eyes, I decided not to attempt stitching them, but to use the magical ingredient Vilene Bondaweb instead. It's an easy to use iron-on adhesive for fabric and is totally amazing. I've used it such a lot in my 25+ years of stitching and can highly recommend it.

It didn't take Little Lady long to make her Enderman head and she was soon whizzing away with her black seams with no help from me whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Little B had started to feel left out and was keeping on and on (and on) to make his own felt toy. He wanted to make a Creeper he said, a green Creeper please Mummy. Yes, another Minecraft character of course. So we took a second trip to the shop and I gave Little B 55 pence to buy a small sheet of creeper-green felt. He helped me cut out the square pieces and again we used Bondaweb to attach the black facial features.

To be honest I thought the stitching was going to be a nightmare as he was so insistant that he do it himself. But I found that so long as I guided him with where to put the needle for each stitch, he could managed perfectly well.....

....he really did good! It was a bit intense and his attention span and ability to sit still was pretty short (he is only four mind you), but I found that he had his own rhythm. He would do maybe five concentrated minutes of stitching, then he would literally jump up and race around the room to let off steam. He would come back to start again sometime later when he was ready, and gradually over the course of the day we made good progress.

Little Lady however was the total opposite and her concentration and staying power was impressive. She sat for many hours in the Big Chair and stitched and stitched and stitched. All day she stitched.

By bedtime she had made and stuffed one head, one body, two arms and two legs. That's an awful lot of stitches!

The next morning I helped her to stitch the body parts together.....

....then she set about making a grass block accessory for her Enderman.

With quite a bit of help, Little B eventually finished his Creeper head on the second day and he is soooo pleased with it. We've yet to make the body and legs but honestly I don't think he's too bothered about that now, he just seems to love that he stitched something and is ridiculously proud of it.

And Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!! Here is Little Lady's Enderman, complete with grass block! It is strangely endearing (in all it's blackness), and best of all she absolutely loves it.

It has been everywhere with her, carted around in a rucksack if we go out, and tucked up in bed with her at night. It's been a really happy, creative project for us, and I am now waiting patiently (but hopefully) to see if she asks to make something else. I'm secretly wishing for something a bit cuter and more colourful to follow, but am trying not to influence her. Well not too much anyhow, but I love the look of this Super-Cute book, and I might possibly be onto a winner with this felt guinea pig ornament......

 

♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Raindrops

Michaelmas Daisies

Mini Ripple Doll Blanket :: Ta-dah!

Comments

[Janis]

You're a good mom, you know that? :-) A lot of people, if their kids had wanted to make a creepy looking black thing with no features, would have vetoed it on the spot. There's a lot to be said for creative autonomy. :-)

[stephany]

LOVE this! My kids both love minecrafting and actual crafting. Going to try this with them before out summer is over.

[Jocelyn Nelson]

I've got this book by the same author: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Super-Cute-Felt-Laura-Howard/dp/1907563776/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408198460&sr=1-8&keywords=felt.
I can heartily recommend it and have made many of the projects inside.

[Abbie]

I have so loved your last two blog posts. Yesterday, I read about - and completely related to - your "thought-fleas." What a PERFECT description! And today, a bit of heartfelt conviction came from your very wise words about saying YES to our children's pleas for creativity. Ugh...how often I've told our children to "find something to do" and then mindlessly kept them from following through because I didn't want to be bothered by...(the mess, giving up what I was doing, the time it might take) Thank you!!!

[Jo]

My girls like making things but the staying power is a problem. Big Sis has more WIP's than me! Jo x

http://joeveryday19.blogspot.co.uk

[Kate]

With regards to adults pondering making Enderman granny blankets and knitting, just because you can it doesn't mean you should. I would have got the shop to have hidden all the black felt.

Re the little lady. Yes her making skills are impressive and little B's not so bad either.

[Sam E]

Ah my kids love minecraft too, great sewing project !
As a kid I don't ever remember my mum making anything creative or crafty with us,
Although she was always making, sewing and painting, she never did that with us.
She bought us kids craft books but we never made anything from them, I remember feeling so frustrated, I had all this energy swirling round desparate to make something, luckily I had colouring pencils and pens and was able to take it out on those. It left me feeling unconfident in my abilities to create, my mum never shared her knowledge. When I had my own kids I made sure that whatever their creative request was I would go all out to fulfil their vision, to show them that out of their ideas are possibilities and realities for great things, and sometimes we were only making mummified action men ( yes weird I know !) but active creativity expands the mind and builds self confidence and self worth. You are a great mum and your kids are very lucky to have a mum like you.

[Winwick Mum]

I loved making things all the time when I was little, but my girls don't seem to have the same urge to do the same - it's probably all the other distractions that are around these days. Every now and again we have a go at something creative, and big daughter announced she wanted to knit a jumper the other day - but as I knew exactly who would end up knitting the jumper, I made sure not to mention it again when she seemed to have forgotten ...!

[Rae]

Thinking of my own Mum she would have never and I mean never had the patience to spend time like that with me but I did have my Auntie Nancy and her sister Peggy (not related to me though just lovely friends of my Mum)who between them taught me all the crafting skills I could ever need in one lifetime....you just carry on Lucy doing what you do with your lovely children those skills will be put to use many many times in years to come.

[Jane]

Lucy you are such a lovely Mummy-your patience is amazing and you're making such wonderful memories for your little people! Thank you again for such a lovely post😊

[Lynne]

That's so lovely. I'm impressed with both your little people. I must go and check out your links. My grandson is a minecraft fan.

[Josie Calvert Briggs]

I love this project! I am 22 and I LOVE minecraft. Its such a creative game. One of the only games I would say is good for the development of young children. Good on them for coming up with their own project!

[anne@andamento]

Great idea, I've two minecraft obsessives in the house. Your children did a fantastic job.

[Carolyn Jackson]

How lovely to see the little ones making felt toys,and making such a great job, we hadnt heard of the programme, perhaps it hasn't arrived here yet, I have been making felt things too, the Mouse from Mollie Makes 11 and the rabbit from MM 40, nice to use felt for a change.
Caro NZ

[One Earlybird]

I love seeing kids being creative and good on you for ignoring the impulse to influence them. It can be hard sometimes.

[wendy]

How wonderful and such great stitching from your creative little people, very impressed here

[Sheryl from the US]

Very impressed with Little Lady's neat stitches. She did a wonderful job! Of course, Little B's is quite impressive, also. Great work all!

[Holly Nelson]

This is fab! Felt is so amazing.

[Jean]

That is so cool that your peeps wanted to make their own stuffed toys. I am very impressed with their work!

[Andrina]

Those are wonderful! Go Little B, look at you sewing at age 4! Little Lady did a great job--my 12 year old is suitably impressed. And the bow is a great touch! xx

[Heather]

I think they both did incredible! Such neat, even stitches!

[Heather]

I think they both did incredible! Such neat, even stitches!

[Kitty]

Beauteous crafting from your smalls, very very well done! I'm pondering trying to knit an Enderman. All straight edges and if I knit on small kneedles with a firm yarn it should hold up well...

[Joy]

Great for them both to make their choices. Little B is a superstar 😄 Xx Joy Xx

[Mary L]

So cute! I am going to have to show this to my 9 year old who just asked for a creeper blanket. I'm sure he would love both of these projects. (And so would his little sister probably).
Thank you for posting!