toddler sewing basket

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if you follow me on pinterest you will know that i have a toddler homeschool board. on it i pin activities that i think elfling will like. not all have been the huge success i had hoped they would be (example), but others have been. the toddler sewing kit is one such success. here are the beginnings of ours.

the stringing kit long ago lost its favor, but reclaimed it by being added to the sewing basket. fickle toddler. we still store this set in the pouch i had sewn for it, to help keep the basket organized.

yarn & a blunt yarn needle for sewing practice. i have wrapped the yarn (there are actually two shorter lengths on this) around a spool. it helps eliminate a tangled mess, & elfling thinks it is fun to wrap & unwrap.

the others used mesh in an embroidery hoop for practice. he tried it, but no matter how taut i made the mesh, there was too much give, & he would become frustrated. i should say here that elfling is not what you'd call the most patient of toddlers. i am sure that most wee ones would do well with the mesh-in-hoop version. happily, i had this metal tray? decoration? basket? (i honestly do not know its original purpose) acorn in the studio which works perfectly.

also in the basket: a nylon zipper, a bag of cable ties (aka zip ties), & a felt stringer. more on the last two another day.

if you have any other ideas for the toddler sewing basket, i would love to hear about them. you know. in the comment section. which this blog has. nudge, nudge.

retro toys & televisions

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a few years ago we bought a 3lb bag of wooden bits & bobs for thehobbit. he had loads of fun creating & playing with it all, but about 5 months ago he declared he was too old for that sort of thing. you know, being a great old man of 13. i took what was left, stored it in my studio, & promptly forgot it was there.

recently, in a search for ribbon (that i never found), i discovered the bag o' bits. it was the giant spool that caught my eye. i'd been planning to buy a few spools, so emptied the bag to see if there were others. yes! not only that, there were other things with holes. you see, i had wanted spools to put together an old-fashioned stringing kit for elfling. now i had them, & more.

this was even better than i'd planned, because i had only thought about regular little spools. the bag yielded: spools in 3 sizes, wheels in 2 sizes, & 2 other be-holed pieces. fun! i added a length of paper string, which, as you can see, we store around one of the larger spools. he just unwinds it when he wants to string, then he turns it into a huge ordeal helps me rewind it when he's done.

sometime he doesn't even play with the string. instead, he rolls them across the floor, or stacks them. they make fabulous stacking blocks.

because our home is small, i try to keep his various toys & kits stored in their own bags. it keeps things neat, makes cleaning easier, & if it's something i want him to have to ask for, i can store it away from the main toy basket. 

this kit's drawstring bag was sewn from thehobbit's, long since outgrown, favorite jams. i had saved them, knowing i'd use the fabric for something. i mean, come on! the retro televisions are too darn cute. the bag used only one half of one leg,  leaving plenty of fabric for another project. it was too flimsy on its own, so i lined it with green cotton. the bonus from repurposing jam bottoms? the drawstring from the waistband became the drawstring for the bag! less work = happy kat.

what about you? do you have any tips for keeping the toys organized?

~peace.