Wonderful Pigs

I bought this book by Phoebe Gilman from a book sale for just 25 cents and it's become the girls absolute all-time favourite. It's about a little girl, Jillian Jiggs, who makes pigs. Each one is different and has its own unique personality. She names each one and intends on selling them, but just can't bear to part with any of them. So... she teaches her friends to make some for themselves and [this is the best bit]... there are instructions at the back the book, to make your own pigs!

Well, straightaway, Livvie ran to her desk to design her own pig. Meet 'Christmas Pig';

That was a few days ago... and then we were house-bound today (waiting on news from the doctor to see if Elly's cough is Whooping Cough. It's not, thank goodness! But there was a case at her Preschool and even though she is vaccinated, I got her checked and swabbed within 12 hours of her first cough. Apparently she has a virus and Livvie has an ear infection).

So after nap time today, the girls wanted to do some craft and I suggested making pigs. They were so excited! The girls chose their own fabric and felt (Pink for my 4 yr old, Green for my 2 yr old, as always), selected buttons and ribbon and sat on my lap as I sewed them up;

The green one is named 'Noisey' and the pink one is 'Oinky'.

That was after they had fun, stuffing them themselves;

[At one point the Thomas phone seen here (the one with no batteries) 'rang' and Livvie picked it up and said, 'I cant talk to you right now, I am making something really important'. Ha!]

The ears are sewn on pretty crudely and Elly's has different coloured eyes... but I think they are cute and they really, truly love them.

The girls played with them all afternoon (and I mean all afternoon... these pigs went on the swings, on the trampoline, sat at the table for dinner with us!), then I suddenly remembered I had made something similar when I was a little girl of about 6 or 7 years old. We dug through some old boxes in storage and I found my very first attempt at sewing, circa 1986;

[It's ok, you can laugh.... I think it's hilarious!]

I told the girls that "Back when I was a girl"... I didn't have a whole fabric stash to rummage through, so I had used a stocking... and I didn't have any polyester stuffing - I had to use tissues!

When I pulled it out, Elly laughed her head off. Livvie kept her composure and said, 'I'm not going to laugh at it, Mummy' (she believes that her dolls and stuffed animals have feelings and would never do anything to upset them... And she is always trying to catch them blinking!)

We named my little pig 'Dusty'. The girls seemed quite inspired by my little creation and I loved telling them how they can make all sorts of soft toys from old socks and stockings. Of course, they then raided their underwear drawers and we now have a shortage of socks and some odd looking puppets popping up around the house!