Fruit pillows

[J_2911]

We love, love, love the suggested fruit pillow idea in the craft book. We would like to use bright colored fleece and then have the kids paint one of the "fruits of the spirit" on them. The book suggests sewing them with embroidery floss and then gluing the edges together... Hmm... or maybe it was the other way around... We are considering having some of the workers go ahead and sew the basic shape together, then have the child do the closing stitches... maybe.

Do you guys think sewing through a machine would work better, or not so much, than having the kids sew with embroidery floss? Our kids are only in the craft center for 20 minutes.

[kimbak]

We only have 20 minutes also and to have a large group of kids trying to do the sewing themselves would take quite a while I think. I like the idea of pre-sewing most of it, then having them close it up. So will you have them paint on them with fabric paint?

[J_2911]

Fabric paint is what we think will work, but we want to try it out first.

[junglejane]

Instead of sewing the pillows...you could tie them. This will take more material, but the kids will be able to tie the knot themselves. You will need to add at least 2.5" of material all around the finished size of the pillow...then cut 1" wide tabs 2.5" deep all around the pillow...be sure to have the same number on each side and on both parts of the pillow...The kids can paint first, then start to tie knots. Leave a few un-tied to allow for stuffing, and then finish knotting the final tabs. You might want to do a test run first especially if you are using a less stretchy material. Fleece works great for this pillow project. You can choose to use a different 'back' color (may be even a farm print) to give the fringe some color variations. Hope you enjoy!

[J_2911]

Great idea, Jungle! =)

I've seen that done several times, but hadn't thought about it for this project. I guess I've mainly seen it done on square and rectangle shaped material.

[rach]

Instead of sewing the pillows...you could tie them. This will take more material, but the kids will be able to tie the knot themselves. You will need to add at least 2.5" of material all around the finished size of the pillow...then cut 1" wide tabs 2.5" deep all around the pillow...be sure to have the same number on each side and on both parts of the pillow...The kids can paint first, then start to tie knots. Leave a few un-tied to allow for stuffing, and then finish knotting the final tabs. You might want to do a test run first especially if you are using a less stretchy material. Fleece works great for this pillow project. You can choose to use a different 'back' color (may be even a farm print) to give the fringe some color variations. Hope you enjoy!

ooohhh I like that idea!