Summer Holiday

I have just spent a lovely few days with my 11 year old niece visiting. She has history of being a craft bug. The first summer she stayed with us on her own I had a nice girly day out planned, lunch, cinema and swimming, but she announced that she didn't want to do that, she wanted to learn how to cross stitch. Fine by me, little did I expect that 12 hours later we would still be sewing...! cheaper than the day out I had planned too.

Among the projects we had for this weekend was soft toy making. I had bought what looked like a simple pattern for a duck billed platypus from the Funky Friend Factory (don't ask why the Platypus, he just looked cute) and I figured I would teach her how to use a sewing machine and make one. She wasn't however interested in Platypuses (platypi?) and after having seen something I had already made, wanted to make a gecko instead.

She did pretty much all the work herself, happily using the old Singer sewing machine, needing little after the initial instructions, and seems to be delighted with the end result.

I lost my gecko too into the bargain!