Sewing For Fun!

I just finished a fun sewing project, which was a copy of something I came across online. For our grandson, Mr. O's first birthday I made an "I Spy" bag. This is an activity patterned after the "I Spy" books. It is essentially a large bean bag with a clear vinyl window and filled with plastic pellets rather than beans. Hidden in the bag are many assorted trinkets to look for, buttons, keys, marbles, and other miniatures. By manipulating and shaking the bag, the hidden objects come into view. A laminated card has pictures of all the hidden objects to find.

I made a second bag at the same time to keep at Grandma's house! I think these would be great for the car or church time or waiting rooms.

These were a pretty easy project, except for locating the plastic pellets to fill them with. You can find small packages at the craft store which are pricey or you can order very large quantities online which would be great if you're making a dozen. The solution I came up with was to buy several Beanie Babies from our local thrift store (at 50 cents each), put them through the wash and reuse all the pellets from inside them.

I enlisted Lucas to harvest the pellets from the Beanie Babies, but Naomi couldn't bear to see the empty "bodies" discarded, so she was rescuing them and re-stuffing them with batting and sewing them shut. So she has a whole new menagerie of animals after this project!

I must also give credit to Timothy, who photoed all the objects for me and created the cards for printing and laminating. Thanks, Timothy!