The Measure of Success - sewing machine and polymer clay

Anticipation and Plotting (errr planning)

I was extremely excited leading up to the weekend. I'd been trying to think of a way to justify the purchase of a sewing machine for a while now. Somewhat difficult as its approximately half my life (gasp) since I last touched one. My good friend Ripple came to my rescue when she heard my mutterings and immediately offered me the use of one she had boxed in the garage, just like the fantastic friend she is.



The sensible thing to do would have been to practice sewing straight lines, maintaining speed etc but where is the fun in that?

Another Wet Weekend

We were expecting yet another wet weekend and so I'd also bought in a supply of fimo clay (something else I wasn't practised with but very excited to try). After cudgeling my brains I came up with a plan to combine both crafts and have a bit of family fun.

Firstly we split into two teams my hubby and mini-man L, and me with mini-man J. Each team had to create five colorful bugs from the clay, the only requirement being the first team had to make the bodies green, while the bodies made by the second team had to be blue.

As my boys like families each set of bugs also ended up with two bigger ones (the mummy and daddy), and three babies.

At three and four years the adult supervision was very necessary, the clay being surprisingly difficult to mould. It was most definitely great fun and a really good wet day family activity. Directed by our mini-men we helped to add heads, eyes, smile and spots coming up with two distinct bug families.

Not beautiful perhaps but little hands very much enjoyed making them. That they were different was most important as you will see.

The next step was to practice sewing my straight lines. I took some coloured cotton, cut up an old fleece jumper that never really fit and layered them cotton, fleece, cotton. Using the wonderful (you should see my hand sewing) sewing machine I sewed then together making a handkerchief size floppy square. Soft enough to fold up but the fleece giving it enough strength for the purpose we intended.

As a final touch I practiced some more straight lines by adding some strips of ribbon. And there you have it, a homemade version of the traditional noughts and crosses (tic tac toe) game! Don't worry that there are two boards, just a requirement for the two kids.

So Sucess? Well YES! Not of it is pretty and it's very far from perfect. But...as a family we had a great time with the clay, we have ten colourful bugs, enough for a game of noughts and crosses as well as a board or two made to size. I've learnt a bit about polymer clay and started to remember how to use a sewing machine. Oh yes and the kids are very taken with their bug families and have been flying them round the house all weekend.

Most definitely a success!

Hope you had as much fun with your weekend and wishing everyone a happy Handmade Monday.

ClairLou